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ESSAYS 

HYPOCHOJsrBRMCM 

AND  OTHER 

^ERVOUS    AFFECTIONS, 


BY  JOHN  REID,  M.  D. 

3IEMBER  OP  THE  nOTAL   COLLEGE  OP  PHYSICIANS,    LONBOK;    AND  lATE 
PHTSICIAIT   TO   THE  FINSBUHT   BISFENSAET. 


I  have  chosen  those  subjects  of  these  Essays,  wherein  I  take  human 
life  to  be  most  concerned,  which  are  of  most  common  use,  or  most  ne- 
cessary knowledge  ;  and  wherein,  though  I  may  not  be  able  to  inform 
men  more  than  they  know,  I  may  perliaps  give  them.occasion  to  consider 
more  than  they  do.  Sir  William  Temple. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  M.  CAREY  &  SON, 

JVo.  126,  Chesnut  Street. 


May  20, 1817 


KZ7 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


It  is  right  to  apprise  the  reader  of  the  fol- 
lowing Essays,  that  many  passages  in  them 
have  been  taken,  without  much  alteration, 
from  the  Medical  Reports,  which,  after  Dr. 
Willan  had  relinquished  the  task,  I  was,  for  a 
course  of  years,  in  the  practice  of  communi- 
cating to  the  Old  Monthly  Magazine. 

It  was  my  original  design  to  have  endea- 
voured to  write  something  more  systematic 
and  complete  on  the  subject  of  mental  disea- 
ses ;  but  domestic  circumstances  in  which  the 
pubUc  are  not  interested,  having  interfered 
with  the  prosecution  of  that  object,  I  have 
been  induced  to  commit  to  the  press,  in  the 
form  of  Essays,  what  I  had  regarded  as  mate- 
rials merely  towards  the  formation  of  a  larger 
and  more  methodical  work. 

J.  REID. 

Or erwille- Street y  Brunswick  Square, 
May  24,  1816. 


CONTENTS. 

Essay.  '  Page. 

I.  On  the  influence  of  the  mind  on  the  body  5 

II.  The  power  of  volition         -         _         -         _        9 

III.  The  fear  of  death         -         -         -         .  17 

IV.  On  Pride         - 25 

V.  On  Remorse         ,         _         -         -         -  33 

VI.  On  Solitude  41 

VII.  Excessive  study,  or  application  of  mind  49 

VIII.  Vicissitude,  a  cause  and  characteristic  of  intel- 
lectual malady         _         -         -         .  55 

IX.  Want  of  sleep 59 

X.  Intemperance  -         -         -         -  -     65 

XI.  The  excess  of  abstinence  injurious  -  85 

XII.  Morbid  affections  of  the  organs  of  the  Senses     87 

XIII.  Mental  derangement  not  indicative  of  constitu- 

tional vigour  of  mind         -         -         -         -    97 

XIV.  Physical  Malady,  the  occasion  of  Mental  disor- 

der -  -  -  -  101 

XV.  On  the  atmosphere  of  London         -         -  105 

XVI.  Dyspeptic  and  hepatic  diseases         -         -  109 

XVII.  Palsy,  idiotic,  and  spasmodic  affections  117 

XVII -.  The  hereditary  nature  of  madness  141 

XIX.  On  old  age 147 

XX.  Lunatic  asylums  -         -         -         -  153 

XXI.  The  importance  of  counteracting  the  tendency  of 

Mental  disease         -         -         -         -  161 

XXII.  On  Bleeding         -  .         ...        167 

XXIII.  On  Pharmacy  -  -  -  175 

XXIV.  On  Ablution         -             -             -  -         181 
XXV.  On  bodily  exercise         -           -  -         185 
XXVI.  Real  Evils,  a  remedy  for  those  of  the  Imagina- 
tion          192 

XXVIL  Occupation  -  -  -  -       197 


ESSAY  I. 


ON  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  MIND  ON 
THE  BODY. 

HE  who,  in  the  study  or  the  treatment  of 
the  human  frame,  overlooks  the  intellectual 
part  of  it,  cannot  but  entertain  very  incorrect 
notions  of  its  nature,  and  fall  into  gross  and 
sometimes  fatal  blunders  in  the  means  which 
he  adopts  for  its  regulation  or  repair.  Whilst 
he  is  directing  his  purblind  skill  to  remove  or 
relieve  some  more  obvious  and  superficial 
symptom,  the  worm  of  mental  malady  may 
be  gnawing  inwardly  and  undetected  at  the 
root  of  the  constitution.  He  may  be  in  a  sit- 
uation like  that  of  a  surgeon,  who  at  the 
time  that  he  is  occupied  in  tying  up  one  ar- 
tery, is  not  aware  that  his  patient  is  bleeding 
to  death  at  another. — Intellect  is  not  omnipo- 
tent ;  but  its  actual  power  over  tbe  organized 
matter  to  which  it  is  attached,  is  much  greater 
than  is  usually  imagined.  The  anatomy  of 
the  MIND,  tliereforc,  should  be  learnt,  as  well 


^ U*  ^^  ^^  ^^^>v'^ 

^^'^  OS   I!fl»     ^^^* 


^^^o^t-^ 


6  ON    THE    INFLUENCE    OF 

as  that  of  the  body ;  the  study  of  its  constitu- 
tion in  general,  and  its  peculiarities,  or  what 
may  be  technically  called  its  idiosyncrasies,  in 
any  individual  case,  ought  to  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  essential  branches  of  a  medi- 
cal education. 

The  savage,  the  rustic,  the  mechanical 
drudge,  and  the  infant  vrhose  faculties  have 
not  had  time  to  unfold  themselves,  or  which 
(to  make  use  of  physiological  language)  have 
not  as  yet  been  secreted^  may,  for  the  most  part, 
be  regarded  as  machines,  regulated  principally 
by  physical  agents.  But  man,  matured,  civi- 
lized, and  by  due  culture  raised  to  his  proper 
level  in  the  scale  of  being,  partakes  more  of  a 
moral  than  of  an  animal  character,  and  is  in 
consequence  to  be  worked  upon  by  remedies 
that  apply  themselves  to  his  imagination,  his 
passions,  or  his  judgment,  still  more  than  by 
those  that  are  directed  immediately  to  the 
parts  and  functions  of  his  material  organiza- 
tion. Pharmacy  is  but  a  small  part  of  physic  ; 
medical  cannot  be  separated  from  moral  sci- 
ence without  reciprocal  and  essential  muti- 
lation. 

Such  observations  are  more  particularly  apt 
to  occur  to  one  whose  station  of  professional 
experience  is  established  in  the  midst  of  an 
intellectual,  commercial  and  voluptuous  me- 


THE    MIND   ON  THE    BODY.  7 

tropolisjthe  inhabitants  of  which  exist  in  a  state 
of  more  exalted  excitement  and  irritative  per- 
turbation, than  can  be  occasioned  by  the  com- 
paratively monotonous  circumstances  of  rural 
or  provincial  existence.  Over  a  still  and  wave- 
less  lake,  a  boat  may  move  along  steadily  and 
securely,  with  scarcely  any  degree  of  skill  or 
caution  in  the  pilot  who  conducts  it ;  whereas 
on  the  agitated  and  uncertain  ocean,  it  re- 
quires an  extraordinary  degree  of  dexterity 
and  science  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  vessel, 
and  the  proper  and  regular  direction  of  its  des- 
tined course.  "  Thus  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine is  reduced  to  a  few  simple  rules,  in  the 
country,  and  in  hospitals  ;  but  it  is  obliged  to 
multiply,  to  vary,  and  to  combine  its  resources, 
when  applied  to  men  of  letters,  to  artists,  and 
to  all  persons  whose  lives  are  not  devoted  to 
mere  manual  labour."* 

The  class  of  persons  whose  lives  are  devoted 
to  mere  manual  labour,  especially  the  more 
indigent  part  of  them,  are,  to  a  certain  extent, 
distinguished  by  the  character  of  their  diseases, 
as  well  as  that  of  their  other  evils.  They  dif- 
fer from  the  higher  orders,  less  perhaps  in  the 
actual  quantity,  than  in  the  glaring  and  obtru- 
sive colour  of  their  calamities. 


*  Coup  d'  ocil  siir  les  Revolutions,,  et  sur  lu  Reforme  de  la  Medicine. 

P.  J.  G.  Cabanis. 


8  ON    THE    INFLUENCE    OF 

There  is  no  person,  perhaps,  who  is  apt  to 
form  so  low  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  hu- 
man existence,  as  a  medical  man  practising 
among  the  poor,  especially  among  the  poor 
of  a  great  city.  But  it  is  not  impossible  that 
he  may  exaggerate  the  excess  of  their  suffer- 
ings, by  combining,  as  it  is  natural  for  him  to 
do,  their  external  state,  with  those  feelings 
which  he  has  acquired  from  very  different  cir- 
cumstances and  education.  As  the  horrors 
of  the  grave  affect  only  the  living,  so  the  mis- 
eries of  poverty  exist  principally,  perhaps,  in 
the  imagination  of  the  affluent.  The  labour 
of  the  poor  man  relieves  him  at  least  from 
the  burden  of  fashionable  ennui :  and  the  con- 
stant pressure  of  physical  inconveniencies, 
from  the  more  elegant,  but  surely  not  less  in- 
tolerable distresses  of  a  refined  and  romantic 
sensibihty.  Even  those  superior  intellectual 
advantages  of  education,  to  which  the  more 
opulent  are  almost  exclusively  admitted,  may, 
in  some  cases,  open  only  new  avenues  to  sor- 
row. The  mind,  in  proportion  as  it  is  expan- 
ded, exposes  a  larger  surface  to  impression. 


ESSAY    II. 


THE    POWER    OF    VOLITION. 


Nervous  diseases,  from  their  daily  increas- 
ing prevalence,  deserve  at  the  present  time  a 
more  than  ordinary  degree  of  attention  and 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  medical  practitioner. 
Yet  nothing  smxly  can  surpass  the  inhumanity, 
as  well  as  folly,  with  which  patients  of  this 
class  are  too  frequently  treated.  We  often 
act  upon  the  ill-founded  idea,  that  such  com- 
plaints are  altogether  dependent  upon  the 
power  of  the  will ;  a  notion,  which,  in  para- 
doxical extravagance,  scarcely  yields  to  the 
doctrine  of  a  modern,  though  now  obsolete 
writer,  on  the  Philosophy  of  Morals,  who  as- 
serted that  no  one  need  die,  if,  with  a  suffi- 
cient energy,  he  determined  to  live.  To  com- 
mand, or  to  advise  a  person  labouring  under 
nervous  depression,  to  be  cheerful  and  alert, 
is  no  less  idle  and  absurd,  than  it  would  be, 
to  command  or  advise  a  person,  under  the  di- 
rect and  most  intense  influence  of  the  sun's 


10  THE    POWER    OP  VOLITION. 

rays,  to  shiver  with  cold,  or  one  who  is  "  wal- 
lowing naked  in  December's  snows,"  to  per- 
spire from  a  sensation  of  excessive  heat.  The 
practice  of  laughing  at,  or  scolding  a  patient 
of  this  class,  is  equally  cruel  and  ineffectual. 
No  one  was  ever  laughed  or  scolded  out  of 
hypochondriasis.  It  is  scarcely  likely  that  we 
should  elevate  a  person's  spirits  by  insulting 
his  understanding.  The  malady  of  the  nerves 
is  in  general  of  too  obstinate  a  nature  to  yield 
to  a  sarcasm  or  a  sneer.  It  would  scarcely 
be  more  preposterous  to  think  of  dissipating 
a  dropsy  of  the  chest,  than  a  distemper  of 
the  mind,  by  the  force  of  ridicule  or  rebuke. 
The  hypochondriac  may  feel  indeed  the  edge 
of  satire  as  keenly  as  he  would  that  of  a 
sword.  But  although  its  point  should  pene- 
trate his  bosom,  it  would  not  be  likely  to  let 
out  from  it,  any  portion  of  that  noxious  mat- 
ter by  which  it  is  so  painfully  oppressed.  The 
external  expression  of  his  disorder  may  be 
checked  by  the  coercive  influence  of  shame 
or  fear :  but  in  doing  this,  a  similar  kind  of 
risque  is  incurred  to  what  arises  from  the  re- 
pelling of  a  cutaneous  eruption,  which,  although 
it  conceal  the  outward  appearance,  seldom 
fails  still  more  firmly  to  establish  the  internal 
strength,  to  increase  the  danger,  and  to  pro- 
tract the  continuance  of  the  disease.     By  in- 


T^E    POWER  OF    VOLITION.  11 

direct  and  imperceptible  means,  the  attention 
may,  in  many  instances,  be  gently  and  insen- 
sibly enticed :  but  seldom  can  we  with  safety 
attempt  to  force  it  from  any  habitual  topic  of 
painful  contemplation.  In  endeavouring  to 
tear  the  mind  from  a  subject  to  which  it  has 
long  and  closely  attached  itself,  we  are  almost 
sure  to  occasion  an  irreparable  laceration  of 
its  structure. 

However  well  founded  may  be  these  obser- 
vations, it  must  still  be  acknowledged,  that 
the  different  degrees  of  power  which  persons 
of  various  habits  and  constitutions  appear  to 
possess,  not  only  over  the  feelings  and  facul- 
ties of  the  mind,  but  likewise  over  what  are 
called  the  involuntary  muscles,  and  even  the 
blood  vessels  of  the  body,  may  afford  ground 
for  an  inquiry,  curious  at  least,  if  not  impor- 
tant, how  far  so  desirable  a  power  may  be  ac- 
quired ;  and  to  what  extent,  by  some  yet  un- 
discovered method  of  education,  it  may  be 
elevated  and  improved. 

Dr.  Cheyne,  in  one  of  his  medical  treatises, 
narrates  a  case,  the  accuracy  of  which  is  es- 
tablished by  an  irrefragable  combination  of  ev- 
idence, of  a  man  who  could  die  to  all  appear- 
ance, at  any  time  that  he  chose ;  and,  after 
having  lain  for  a  considerable  period  exactly 
as  a  corpse,  was  able,  as  it  would  seem,  by  a 


^Ig  THE   POWER   OF  VOLITION. 

voluntary  struggle,  to  restore  to  himself  the 
appearance  and  all  the  various  functions  of 
animation  and  intellect.  It  is  to  be  inferred 
from  the  latter  part  of  the  story,  that  the  un- 
natural and  painful  exertions  by  which  this 
person  assumed  the  semblance  of  decease, 
produced  at  length  a  fatal  result.  Death  would 
be  no  longer  mocked  with  impunity.  The 
counterfeit  corpse,  a  few  hours  after  its  last  re- 
vival, relapsed  into  a  state  which  was  capable 
of  no  subsequent  resuscitation.  But  the  case 
is  so  interesting  and  remarkable,  as  to  deserve 
our  giving  it  in  all  the  detail  with  which  Dr. 
Cheyne  presents  it  to  his  readers. 

"  He  could  die  or  expire  w^hen  lie  pleased  ; 
and  yet  by  an  effort,  or  somehow,  he  could 
come  to  life  again.  He  insisted  so  much  upon 
our  seeing  the  trial  made,  that  we  were  at 
last  forced  to  comply.  We  all  three  felt  his 
pulse  first.  It  was  distinct,  though  small  and 
thready :  and  his  heart  had  its  usual  beating. 
He  composed  himself  on  his  back  ;  and  lay  in 
a  still  posture  for  some  time.  While  I  held 
his  right  hand,  Dr.  Baynard  laid  his  hand  on 
his  heart ;  and  Mr.  Skrine  held  a  clear  look- 
ing-glass to  his  mouth.  1  found  his  pulse 
sink  gradually,  till  at  last  I  could  not  feel  any 
by  the  most  exact  and  nice  touch.  Dr.  Bay- 
nard could  not  feel  the  least  motion  in  his 


THE  POWER  OF  VOLITION,  13 

heart ;  nor  Mr.  Skrine  perceive  the  least  sort 
of  breath  on  the  bright  mirror  he  held  to  his 
mouth.  Then  each  of  us,  by  turns,  examined 
his  arm,  heart,  and  breath ;  but  could  not,  by 
the  nicest  scrutiny,  discover  the  least  symptom 
of  hfe  in  him.  We  reasoned  a  long  time  about 
this  odd  appearance  as  well  as  we  could ;  and, 
finding  he  still  continued  in  that  condition,  we 
began  to  conclude  that  he  had  indeed  carried 
the  experiment  too  far ;  and  at  last  we  were 
satisfied  he  w^as  actually  dead,  and  were  just 
ready  to  leave  him.  This  continued  about 
half  an  hour.  By  nine  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing in  autumn,  as  we  were  going  away,  we 
observed  some  motion  about  the  body  ;  and 
upon  examination  found  his  pulse  and  the 
motion  of  his  heart  gradually  returning ;  he 
began  to  breathe  gently,  and  speak  softly.  We 
were  all  astonished  to  the  last  degree  at  this 
unexpected  change ;  and  after  some  further 
conversation  with  him  and  ourselves,  went 
away  fully  satisfied  as  to  all  the  particulars  of 
this  fact,  but  not  able  to  form  ahy  rational 
scheme  how  to  account  for  it.  He  afterwards 
called  for  his  attorney,  added  a  codicil  to  liis 
will,  ^c.  and  calmly  and  composedly  died 
about  five  or  six  o'clock  that  evening."* 

*  Clieync's  Euii-lish  Malady. 


14  THE  POWER  OP  VOLITION. 

Burton,  in  his  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  re- 
ports cases  which  were  somewhat  similar,  but 
by  no  means  equally  wonderful  with  the  pre- 
ceding. "  Celsus  speaks  of  a  priest  that  could 
separate  himself  from  his  senses  when  he 
list,  and  lie  like  a  dead  man,  void  of  life  and 
sense.  Qui,  quoties  volebat,  mortuo  similisja- 
cebat,  auferens  se  a  sensibus.  Cardan  brags  of 
himself,  that  he  could  do  as  much,  and  that 
when  he  list."* 

Such  instances  serve  to  shew,  that  the  will 
can  perform  wonders  in  the  controul  and  ma- 
nagement of  our  corporeal  frame.  If  such  an 
extraordinary  degree  of  command  be  possible, 
as  has  been  here  represented,  it  is  fair  to 
conclude,  that  we  may  have  in  general  a  great- 
er power  than  we  are  aware  of,  over  the  ani- 
mal and  vital  functions.  If,  by  a  determination 
of  the  mind,  it  be  practicable  in  some  cases, 
to  suspend  altogether  the  appearance  of  life, 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe,  that,  by  the  same 
means,  we  may  put  at  least  a  temporary  stop 
to  the  symptoms  of  disease.  We  would  not  be 
paradoxical  or  extravagant  enough  to  assert, 
that  for  a  person  to  be  in  health,  it  is  suffici- 
ent that  he  wills  it.  But  without  transgressing 
the  moderation  of  truth,  we  may  venture  to 

*  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  vol.  i.  v.  134.  octavo  edit. 


THE  POWER   OF  VOLITION.  ±5 

give  it  as  our  opinion,  that  a  man  often  indo- 
lently bends  under  the  burden  of  indisposition, 
which  a  spirited  effort  would,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, have  shaken  from  his  shoulders.     If, 
upon  the  approach  of  the  maladv,  he  had  re- 
solutely set  his  face  against  it,  be  would  pro- 
bably have  arrested  it  in  its  threatened  attack. 
I  was  once  consulted  concerning  an  hypo- 
chrondriacal   lady,  who    complained  princi- 
pally of  an  invincible  indolence  and  languor. 
She  seemed  almost  incapable  of  voluntary  mo- 
tion.     This    apparent  incapacity   had  been 
sanctioned,  and  confirmed  by  authority  as  well 
as  indulgence.    She  had  been  told,  by  a  very 
complaisant  physician,  that  "  exertion  would 
be  poison  to  her,"  and  had  too  literally  re- 
posed under  the  shelter  of  that  professional 
opinion.    Many,  from  an  anxiety  to  avoid  this 
falsely  imagined  poison,  reject  the  most  effec- 
tual antidote  to  the  real  miseries  of  life,  as 
well  as  to  a  large  proportion  of  its  diseases. 
To  a  patient,  however,  whose  malady  is  las- 
situde, exertion  should  be  prescribed  at  first 
only,  in  very  small  doses.     Such  a  person 
would  be  apt  to  be  exhausted  even  by  an  or- 
dinary task  of  exercise,  and  might  thus  be 
discouraged  from  further  efforts  at  activity. 


16  THE  POWER  OF  VOLITION. 

In  the  class  of  what  are  called  nervous  affec- 
tions, it  unfortunately  happens,  that  the  very 
essence  of  the  disease  often  consists  in  a  de- 
bility of  the  resolution ;  that  the  ailment  of 
body  arises  from  an  impotency  of  spirit,  a 
palsy  of  the  power  of  resistance.     A  malady, 
occasioned  by  the  weakness  of  the  mind,  is 
not  likely  to  be  cured  by  its  energy.     A  ten- 
dency  to  sickness  of  the  stomach,  may  often 
be   overcome  by  striving  against  it:  but  a, 
squeamish  disgust  of  life  cannot  in  the  same 
degree  be  counteracted  by  a  similar  kind  of 
exertion.     It  is  not  uncommon  to  say,  to  a 
drooping  or  desponding  valetudinarian,  "  only 
exert  yourself,  and  you  will  get  the  better  of 
your  complaint ;"  whereas,  in  many  instances 
of  this  kind,  it  might  as  well  be  said  to  an  in- 
valid confined  to  his  bed  by  a  paralysis  of  his 
limbs, "  only  run  or  walk,  and  you  will  be  well." 
People  in  general  are  apt  to  think  that  a  man 
under  the  weight  of  constitutional  or  habitual 
melancholy,  may  keep  up  his  spirits,  as  a  little 
Miss  can  hold  up  her  head,  upon  merely  being 
bid  to  do  so. 

It  is  often  as  impossible  for  an  hypochon- 
driac, by  any  voluntary  effort,  to  get  the  better 
of  his  complaint,  as  for  a  man  of  ordinary  sta- 
ture, to  gain  an  ascendency,  when  struggling 
under  the  compression  of  a  giant. 


ESSAY  III. 


THE    FEAR    OF    DEATH. 


"  The  Egyptians  in  their  hieroglyphics  expressed  a  melancholy  man 
by  a  hare  sitting  in  a  form,  as  being  a  most  timorous  as  well  as  solitary 
creatui'e."  Burton's  Jinatomy  of  Melandwly. 

An  undue  fear  of  death  is  one  of  the  most 
ordinary  symptoms  of  hypochondriasis,  and 
not  the  least  frequent  perhaps  among  the 
'causes  which  produce  it ;  unless,  indeed,  we 
consider  the  disease  as  already  formed,  as 
soon  as  this  feeling  has  encroached,  in  any 
inordinate  degree,  upon  the  tranquillity  of  the 
liiind. 

It  is  a  circumstance  somewhat  remarkable, 
that  those  persons  should  be  in  general  found 
to  dread  most  their  departure  from  this  state 
of  being,  to  whom  it  has  proved  least  pr^uc- 
tive  of  enjoyment.  The  passion  for  life  would 
seem  to  be  Hke  that  for  country,  which  is  said 
to  be  felt  with  the  greatest  vivacity  by  the  na- 
tives of  barren  regions. 

Upon  an  apparently  similar  principle,  after 
existence  has  lost  every  thing  that  could  enli- 


18  THE    FEAR   OP    DEATH. 

veil  or  embellish  it,  we  often  become  more 
enamoured  of  its  present  deformity  than  we 
were  with  its  former  loveliness,  When  all  is 
gone  by,  that  could  render  the  world  reasona- 
bly dear  to  us,  our  attachment  to  it  not  only  re- 
mains, but  appears  frequently  to  be  strength- 
ened rather  than  to  be  impaired  by  the  de- 
parture of  whatever  could  justify  its  continu- 
ance. The  love  of  life,  one  might  fancy,  in 
some  cases,  to  be  a  product  formed  from  the 
decomposition  of  its  pleasures. 

These  remarks  are,  in  no  case,  so  well  il- 
lustrated as  in  that  of  many  a  nervous  invalid, 
to  whom  the  continuance  of  being  is  often 
only  the  longer  lingering  of  torture.  The  un- 
happy hypochondriac  is  unwilling  to  lay  down 
the  burden  which  oppresses  him.  The  rack 
of  life  upon  which  he  is  stretched,  he  prefers 
to  the  repose  of  the  grave.  He  isloath  to  re- 
linquish that  breath  which  is  spent  in  little 
else  than  sighs  and  lamentations.  To  him  ex- 
istence is  a  chronic  malady :  and  yet  he  feels 
an  insuperable  aversion  from  its  only  effectual 
cure.  I  was  once  present  when  a  poor  pa- 
tient of  a  dispensary,  conscious  that  he  was  la- 
bouring under  the  last  agonies  of  asthma,  ari- 
sing from  water  in  the  chest,  breathed  a  con- 
fession, that  "  he  was  ashamed  of  feeling  so 
much  attached  to  this  last  rag  of  life."     This 


THE    FEAR   OF    DEATH.  19 

peculiar  species  of  dotage,  this  fondness,  as  it 
were,  for  the  mere  function  of  respiration,  can 
be  explained  only  by  that  incurable  obstinacy 
of  hope  which  yields  to  no  experience.  We 
persist  in  looking  for  the  sweetest  part  of  the 
draught  at  the  bottom  of  the  cup.  That  feli- 
city which  the  "  first  sprightly  runnings"  of 
life  could  not  give,  we  fondly  expect  may  be 
extracted  from  the  feculence  of  age.  Such 
an  infatuation  with  regard  to  the  future,  may 
be  considered,  as,  in  some  respects,  a  desira- 
ble ingredient  in  the  composition  of  our  frame. 
It  is  a  delusion  which  mercifully  suppUes  what 
would  otherwise  be  a  dreadful  want  in  the  re- 
alities of  life.  On  the  other  hand,  an  almost 
unceasing  and  fearful  looking  forward  to  the 
end  of  our  journey,  prevents  our  seeing  many 
of  the  flowers  by  which  the  path  is  strewed ; 
and  induces  a  distaste  for  nearly  every  cor- 
dial which  might  otherwise  have  innocently  re- 
freshed us  in  the  course  of  our  weary  pilgrim- 
age. The  habitual  horror,  which  thus  over- 
shadows  the  mind,  darkens  the  little  daylight 
of  life.  An  indulgence  in  this  morbid  excess 
of  apprehension  not  only  embitters  a  man's 
existence,  but  may  often  tend  to  shorten  its 
duration.  He  hastens  the  advance  of  death 
by  the  fear  with  which  his  frame  is  seized  at 
the  appearance  of  its  approach.     His  trem- 


20  THE    FEAR    OP    DEATH. 

bling  hand  involuntarily  shakes  the  glass  in 
which  his  hours  are  numbered. 

Contradictory,  as  it  may  appear,  there  are 
well  attested  instances  of  persons  who  have 
been  driven  even  to  suicide  by  the  dread  of 
dissolution.  It  would  seem  as  if  they  had 
rushed  into  the  arms  of  death  in  order  to  shel- 
ter themselves  from  the  terrors  of  his  coun- 
tenance. 

The  favourable  termination  of  serious  dis- 
ease is  to  be  attributed  much  oftener,  than  is 
in  general  imagined,  to  a  pacific  indifference, 
on  the  part  of  the  subject  of  it,  with  regard  to 
the  ultimate  result.  Cases  have  repeatedly 
occurred  in  my  professional  experience,  in 
which,  after  having  chearfully  looked  for  an 
event  which  the  sufferer  anticipated  simply  as 
a  release  from  pain,  he  has  appeared  to  feel 
somewhat  like  disappointment  at  a  recovery 
which  was  probably  to  be  attributed,  in  a  great 
measure,  to  its  not  having  been  anxiously  de- 
sired. I  particularly  recollect  one  instance  of 
a  restoration  to  health  from  an  apparently 
hopeless  disease,  which  I  ascribed,  at  the  time, 
to  the  tranquil  chearfulness  of  the  patient, 
which  powerfully  aided  the  operations  of  na- 
ture, and  gave  an  efficacy,  altogether  unex- 
pected, to  the  applications  of  art.  This  patient 
was  one  of  the  Society  of  Friends  ;  a  society 


THE  FEAR  OF  DEATH.  SI 

whose  peaceful  tenets  and  habits  prove  as  fa- 
vourable to  health  as  they  are  to  piety  and 
virtue ;  with  whom  Christianity  consists  prin- 
cipally in  composure ;  and  self-regulation  con- 
stitutes the  essence  of  religion. 

In  dangerous  maladies,  the  person  in  whom 
there  is  the  least  fear  of  dying,  has,  other  cir- 
cumstances being  the  same,  the  fairest  chance 
to  survive.  Men,  in  critical  situations,  are  apt 
to  be  overwhelmed  by  their  terrors ;  they  are 
drowned  by  their  too  eager  struggles  to 
emerge ;  they  would  keep  afloat,  if  they  re- 
mained quiescent. 

Predictions  of  death,  whether  supposed  to 
be  supernatural,  or  originating  from  human 
authority,  have  often,  in  consequence  of  the 
poisonous  operation  of  fear,  been  punctually 
fulfilled.  The  anecdote  is  well  attested  of  the 
licentious  Lord  Littleton,  that  he  expired  at 
the  exact  stroke  of  the  clock  which,  in  a  dream 
or  vision,  he  had  been  forewarned  would  be 
the  signal  of  his  departure. 

It  is  recorded  of  a  person  who  had  been 
sentenced  to  be  bled  to  death,  that,  instead  of 
the  punisliment  being  actually  inflicted,  he  was 
merely  made  to  believe,  that  it  was  so,  by 
causing  water,  when  his  eyes  were  blinded, 
to  trickle  down  his  arm.  This  mimickry, 
4 


gS  THii  FEAR  OF  DEATH. 

however  of  an  operation  stopped  as  complete- 
ly the  movements  of  the  animated  machine,  as 
if  an  entire  exhaustion  had  been  effected  of 
the  vivifying  fluid.  The  man  lost  his  life,  al- 
though not  his  blood,  by  this  imaginary  vene- 
section. 

We  read  of  another  unfortunate  being  w^ho 
had  been  condemned  to  lose  his  head,  that 
the  moment  after  it  had  been  laid  upon  the 
block,  a  reprieve  arrived ;  but  that  the  victim 
was  already  sacrificed.  His  ear  was  now  deaf 
to  the  dilatory  mercy.  The  living  principle 
had  been  extinguished  by  the  fear  of  the  axe, 
as  effectually  as  it  would  have  been  by  its  fall. 
"  In  Lesinsky's  voyage  round  the  world,  there 
is  an  account  of  a  religious  sect  in  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  who  arrogate  to  themselves  the 
power  of  praying  people  to  death.  Whoever 
incurs  their  displeasure,  receives  notice  that 
the  homicide  Litany  is  about  to  begin ;  and 
such  are  the  effects  of  imagination,  that  the 
very  notice  is  frequently  sufficient,  with  these 
poor  people,  to  produce  the  effect."* 

Tell  a  timorous  man  that  he  ^vill  die,  and  if 
he  has  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  up  with 
reverence  to  your  opinion,  it  may,  not  impro- 
bably, kill  him.     Pronounce  the  sentence  with 

*  Edinbui'gli  Review,  No.  xlvlli.  p.  345. 


THE  FEAR  OF  DEATH.  23 

sufficient  decision  and  solemnity ;  and  under 
certain  circumstances,  it  will  execute  itself. 

I  am  no  advocate  for  imposing  wantonly  or 
unnecessarily  upon  the  understanding  of  an 
invalid,  under  the  pretence  of  remedying  his 
distemper.  Deception  is  liable  to  discovery; 
and,  when  once  detected,  a  man  forfeits  his 
future  right  to  credit  and  authority.  By  giv- 
ing hope  where  it  turns  out  that  there  was  no 
ground  for  it,  we  deprive  ourselves  of  the 
power,  forever  after,  of  inspiring  confidence 
in  those  cases  where  even  we  have  ourselves 
no  suspicion  of  danger. — But  by  terrifying  the 
imagination,  to  create  danger,  where  none  had 
previously  existed ;  by  some  treacherous  logic 
to  reason  a  man  into  an  illness,  or  when  a  tri- 
fling ailment  is  present,  to  aggravate  it  into  a 
serious  malady,  by  representing  it  as  already 
such,  is  among  the  basest  and  the  blackest 
arts  of  empirical  imposture.  The  practitioner, 
who  is  capable  of  such  meanness  and  atrocity, 
can  be  compared  only  to  the  highwayman  who 
puts  you  in  a  state  of  alarm  for  your  person, 
in  order  that  he  may  secure  your  purse  ;  and 
who,  if  he  cannot  otherwise  sufficiently  fright- 
en you,  has  no  repugnance  to  run  the  risk  at 
least  of  murder,  in  order  that  he  may  effect 
his  robberv. 


g#  THE  FEAR  OF  DEATH. 

The  inordinate  fear  of  death,  so  far  as  the 
disease  is  purely  mental,  may  be  in  a  great 
measure  counteracted  by  a  juster  estimate 
of  the  value  of  life,  "  a  state  in  which  much  is 
to  be  endured,  and  little,  comparatively,  to  be 
enjoyed."  This  correct  judgment,  when  as- 
sociated with  "the  gay  conscience"  of  a  life 
that  has  been  spent,  upon  the  whole,  honour- 
ably and  usefully,  so  far  as  it  has  advanced, 
will  enable  a  man,  at  any  stage  of  its  progress, 
to  look  forward  as  well  as  backward,  with  no 
exulting  or  triumphant,  but  with  an  humble 
and  quiet  satisfaction. 

The  Christian  is  still  more  highly  privileged. 
His  eye,  happily  invigorated  by  faiih,  is  able 
to  penetrate  the  thick  mist  which  hangs  over 
the  tomb,  and  which,  from  our  unassisted 
sight,  intercepts  any  further  prospect.  The 
light  of  Divine  Revelation  is,  after  all,  the  only 
light  which  can  effectually  disperse  the  gloom 
of  a  sick  chamber,  and  irradiate  even  the 
countenance  of  death. 


ESSAY    IV. 


ON    PRIDE. 


I  HAD  once  an  opportunity  of  being  minute- 
ly acquainted  with  the  history  of  a  case  in 
which  successive  mortifications  of  an  over- 
weening pride,  at  length  brought  on  a  state  of 
melancholy,  amounting  to  mental  derange- 
ment. Such  cases  are  by  no  means  of  unfre- 
quent  occurrence.  None  are  so  liable  as  the 
proud  to  this  most  humihating  of  all  afflictions. 
The  patient  just  referred  to,  previous  to  his 
insanity,  had  suffered  under  several  paralytic 
attacks.  I  remember  being  present,  when  a 
contemptuous  allusion  having  been  made  by 
one  of  the  company  to  some  of  his  poetical 
effusions,  he  suddenly  complained  of  being 
seized  by  a  numbness  very  much  resembling 
palsy.  The  shafts  of  ridicule  or  satire,  to 
which  he  was  continually  exposing  himself, 
often  wounded  his  vanity ,-  but  nothing  could 
destroy  it.  This  buoyant  quality,  when  beat 
down,  has  a  wonderful  facility  in  recovering 


S6  ON    PRIDE. 

itself.  He  was  one  of  the  multitude  of  instan- 
ces which  evince  the  almost  necessary  con- 
nection betwixt  "vanity  and  vexation  of 
spirit." 

Egotism,  although  neither  technically  nor 
vulgarly  classed  among  the  diseases  incident 
to  the  human  frame,  well  deserves  a  place  in 
a  system  of  nosology.  Patients  of  this  class 
are  themselves  the  favourite  subjects  of  their 
uttered,  and  of  course,  of  their  unspoken  medi- 
tations. "I"  is  the  prominent  pronoun  of 
their  conversation. 

Egotism,  when  combined  with  hypochon- 
driasis, often  leads  a  man  to  form  too  high 
a  notion  of  his  bodily  as  well  as  of  his  intellec- 
tual stature.  It  is  no  very  uncommon  thing 
for  an  hypochondriac  to  fancy  himself  too  big 
to  get  through  a  door :  but  I  recollect  no  in- 
stance in  which  an  invalid  of  this  class  has 
conceived  that  he  was  small  .enough  to  pass 
through  the  key-hole.  In  the  imagination  of 
such  patients,  the  pictures  of  themselves,  when 
not  correctly  drawn,  for  the  most  part  are 
larger  than  life.  But  to  this  rule  there  are  ex- 
ceptions ;  such,  for  instance,  as  that  which 
Zimmerman  notices,  of  a  man  who  imagined 
himself  a  barley-corn  ;  and  was  on  that  ac- 
count afraid  of  going  out  into  the  open  air, 
lest  he  should  be  picked  up  by  the  bjrds. 


ON   PRIDE.  S7 

The  humbly-nervous  ought  to  be  treated 
with  the  most  encouraging  respect,  and  with 
the  most  courtier-hke  attention.  We  should 
endeavour,  by  expressions  of  an  extraordinary 
regard  for  them,  to  supply  the  want  of  satis- 
faction which  they  are  apt  to  feel  with  them- 
selves. On  the  other  hand,  a  haughty  imbe- 
cility ought  to  be  met  by  a  management  that 
is  calculated  to  depress  the  patient  in  his  own 
eyes,  and  to  sober  a  spirit  that  may  have  been 
intoxicated  by  draughts  of  a  servile  or  treach- 
erous adulation.  There  is  an  appropriate  re- 
mark in  Terence,  with  regard  to  a  parasite 
who  was  in  the  habit  of  purchasing  his  daily 
seat  at  a  luxurious  table,  by  feeding,  with  com- 
pliments   the  gluttonous  vanity  of  its  master, 

"  Hie  homines  ex  stultisfacit  insanos,^"* 
Praise  unjustly  or  too  liberally  administered, 
acts  as  poison  upon  a  puny  intellect.  A  man 
even  of  a  vigorous  mind  is  liable  to  receive  in- 
jury from  applause,  although  it  be  well  de- 
served. Extraordinary  merit  is  often  spoiled 
by  its  natural  and  most  appropriate  reward. 
The  smoke  of  the  incense  is  apt  to  obscure 
and  pollute  the  idol  of  our  worship. 

The  obstinacy  of  self-conceit  is  to  be  sub- 
dued only  by  a  permanent,  as  well  as  a  se- 
vere disciphne.  It  is  a  long  course  of  morti- 
fying circumstances,  a  regularly  pursued  sys- 


38  ON  PRIDE. 

tern  of  humiliation,  that  is  necessary  in  order 
to  bring  a  vain  man's  opinion  oi  himself  down 
to  the  level  of  his  real  merit. 

It  is  in  a  great  measure,  on  account  of  the 
eminence  of  their  station  in  society,  exposing 
them  more  than  others  to  the  giddiness  of 
pride,  and  the  noxious  influence  of  adulation, 
that  absolute  sovereigns  are  in  general  to  be 
ranked  among  the  most  unfortunate  of  men. 
There  is  something  apparently  in  the  empire 
of  an  individual  over  nations,  that  renders  him 
incompetent,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  proper 
government  of  himself. 

One  reason  why  the  proud  are  peculiarly 
liable  to  mental  derangement,  is,  that  they  are 
less  able  than  others  to  bear  up  against  the 
distresses  of  life.  They  are  more  severely 
galled  by  the  yoke  of  adversity.  Misfortune 
they  are  apt  to  consider  as  an  injury  inflicted 
upon  them  by  Providence,  at  which  they  can- 
not help  feeling  something  like  the  same  re- 
sentment as  at  a  wrong  which  they  have  re- 
ceived from  a  fellow-creature.  When  assault- 
ed by  calamity,  pride  erects  its  crest  in  indig- 
nation against  heaven.  A  young  man,  of  an 
irritable  temperament,  once  consulted  me 
about  a  complaint  which  had  been  considered 
as  nervous,  and  which,  accordina;  to  his  de- 


ON  PRIDE.  29 

scription  of  it,  was  sufficiently  distressing, 
"But,"  added  he,  "the  most  provoking  cir- 
cumstance relative  to  my  sufferings,  is,  that  I 
am  conscious  of  having  in  no  way  deserved 
them." 

Humility  predisposes  to  resignation.  He 
who  thinks  most  lowly  of  his  merits,  will,  in 
general,  be  induced  to  think  most  lightly  of 
his  afflictions.  Descent  from  elevated  station 
will  be  borne  easily  by  those  who  are  not  high 
minded.  The  loss  of  opulence  is  no  serious 
sorrow  to  one,  the  modesty  of  whose  wishes 
can  stoop  to  the  degradation  of  his  circum- 
stances. Though,  by  eradicating  pride,  we 
could  not  always  disarm  adversity  of  its  sting, 
we  should,  in  every  instance,  render  less  pain- 
ful and  dangerous  the  wound  which  it  inflicts. 

After  the  remarks  which  have  been  already 
made,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  any  thing 
to  shew,  how  ill-adapted  the  doctrine  of  the 
ancient  Stoics  was,  either  to  help  the  infirmi- 
ties of  our  nature,  or  to  alleviate  its  sorrows. 
That  "  pain  is  no  evil"  is  a  proposition  of 
which  every  one,  with  his  senses  about  him, 
must  feel  the  absurdity.  A  maxim  originating 
from  the  pride  of  man,  is  ill  calculated  to  en- 
dow him  with  patience.  The  arrogance  of 
preposterous  speculation  may  stifle  a  groan, 
5 


BO  '  ON  PRIDE. 

or  any  more  articulate  expression  of  com^ 
plaint :  but  it  will  not  render  less  excruciating 
the  unuttered  agony.  It  may  forbid  pain  from 
betraying  itself  in  the  writhings  of  the  limbs, 
or  in  the  contortions  of  the  countenance :  but 
feeling,  thus  forcibly  compressed  within  the 
heart,  will  be  in  danger  of  bursting  it  by  its 
elastic  force  and  expansion.  A  man  elevated 
upon  the  stilts  of  Stoicism,  stands  higher  in- 
deed, but  less  securely.  They  lift  him  above 
the  ground :  but,  whilst  they  deduct  from  his 
safety,  they  give  no  real  addition  to  his  sta- 
ture. Stoicism  is  a  cloke  which  merely  dis- 
guises, not  an  armour  which  defends  or  for- 
tifies, our  weakness.  The  vanity  of  its  lofty 
pretensions  may  be  compared  to  the  feather 
that  idly  floats  above  the  head,  not  to  that  so- 
lid part  of  the  helmet  which  encircles  and 
protects  it.  The  glitter  of  affected  magnani- 
mity is  apt  to  be  mistaken  for  what  is  ster- 
ling and  substantial,  until  the  repeated  rubs  of 
life  have  worn  off'  the  slight  and  superficial 
gilding. 

For  the  unsatisfactory  pride  of  Stoicism, 
would  be  well  substituted  that  salutary  bene- 
volence which  is  so  forcibly  inculcated  by  the 
precepts  of  Christianity,  and  so  conspicuously 
exemplified  in .  the  character  of  its  author. 
By  not  thinking  of  our  individual  interest,  we 


ON  PRIDE.  31 

effectually,  although  indirectly,  promote  it. 
He  who  enters  most  deeply  into  the  misfor- 
tunes of  others,  will  be  best  able  to  bear  his 
own.  A  practical  benevolence,  by  habitually 
urging  us  to  disinterested  exertion,  tends  to 
alienate  the  attention  from  any  single  train  of 
ideas,  which,  if  favoured  by  indolence  and 
self  contemplation,  might  be  in  danger  of  mo- 
nopolising the  mind ;  and  occasions  us  to 
lose  a  sense  of  our  personal  concerns  and 
feehngs,  in  an  enlarged  and  liberal  sympathy 
with  the  general  good.  Howard,  had  he  not 
been  a  philanthropist,  would  probably  have 
been  a  maniac. 

An  admirable  sermon  by  the  late  Dr.  Priest- 
ley, on  "  the  duty  of  not  hving  to  ourselves," 
provided  that  the  principles  of  it  were  well 
digested  and  assimilated  into  the  habit,  would 
prove  a  better  preservative  against  the  mala- 
dy of  mental  derangement  than  any  that  is 
to  be  found  amidst  the  precepts  of  moral,  or 
the  prescriptions  of  medical,  science. 


ESSAY  V. 


REMORSE. 


"  No  disease  of  the  imagination  is  so  diffi- 
cult to  cure,  as  that  which  is  complicated  with 
the  dread  of  guilt.  Fancy  and  conscience  then 
act  interchangeably  upon  us;  and  so  often 
shift  their  place,  that  the  illusions  of  the  one 
are  not  distinguished  from  the  dictates  of  the, 
other.  When  melancholy  notions  take  the 
form  of  duty,  they  lay  hold  on  the  faculties 
without  opposition,  because  we  are  afraid  to 
exclude  or  banish  them."* 

I  shall  never  forget  a  patient,  who,  upon 
the  entrance  of  the  physician  into  his  cham- 
ber, observed  "  You  can  be  of  no  service  to 
me.  Doctors  cannot  cure  a  diseased  con- 
science." The  disease  was  indeed  in  this  in- 
stance too  deeply  rooted  for  medicine  to  era- 
dicate. The  unfortunate  person  a  few  days 
afterwards  died  by  his  own  hand  in  a  pa- 
roxym  of  phrenzy. 

Remorse  itself  is  considered,  perhaps  too 
indiscriminately,  as  a  compensation  for  mis- 

*  Tlasselas. 


34<  REMORSE. 

conduct.  When  it  is  an  unproductive  feeling 
merely,  and  not  a  regenerating  principle,  in- 
stead of  mitigating,  it  can  serve  only  to  aggra- 
vate our  offences.  Repentance,  sentimentally 
indulged,  often  stands  in  the  way  of  a  practi- 
cal reformation.  The  pressure  of  conscious 
criminality  ought  to  be  sufficient  to  rouse  into 
action,  but  not  so  great  as  to  crush  altogether 
the  powers  of  the  mind.  Contrition  is  most 
easily  indulged  in  a  state  of  indolence  and 
solitude;  but  can  be  alleviated  only  by  stre- 
nuous efforts  in  the  service  of  society.  The 
errors  of  our  past  life  are  not  to  be  atoned  by 
wasting  the  remainder  of  it  in  a  sedentary 
grief,  or  in  idle  lamentations.  Every  good 
deed  which  a  man  performs,  lightens,  in  a 
certain  degree,  the  load  of  recollected  guilt. 
Active  duty  is  alone  able  to  counteract  the 
injury,  or  to  obliterate  the  ^tain,  of  transgres- 
sion. 

In  even  aggravated  cases  of  remorse,  much 
may  be  done  towards  relief,  if  the  patient  have 
resolution  enough  to  administer  to  himself; 
to  awaken  from  the  lethargy  of  a  vain  regret ; 
and  make  every  atonement  in  his  power  for 
any  wrong  that  he  has  committed,  or  any  mo- 
ral law  which  he  has  broken.  A  man  may 
compensate  to  society,  for  an  injury  that  is 
perhaps  irreparable  to  an  individual ,  and  by 


REMORSE.  35 

the  extraordinary  exertions  of  a  penitentiary 
benevolence,  be  the  means  of  producing  a 
quantity  of  happiness  that  is  equivalent  to  the 
misery  which  his  former  vices  or  errors  may 
have  occasioned. 

The  paradise  of  innocence,  it  is  true,  can 
never  be  regained.  But  innocence  is  a  state 
of  happiness  rather  than  of  merit.  More  vi- 
gor is  required  to  resist  the  recurrence,  after 
having  yielded  to  the  first  approach,  of  temp- 
tation. The  glory  of  victory  is  enhanced  by 
the  humiliation  of  previous  discomfiture.  A 
man  must  know  something  of  vice,  before  he 
can  practice  the  highest  degree  of  virtue. 
The  summits  of  moral  excellence  were  never 
reached,  without  the  foot  having  frequently 
slipped  during  the  arduous  ascent. 

Remorse  is  often  felt  most  acutely  by  those 
who  have  the  least  reason  for  self-accusation. 
In  proportion  to  the  purity  of  a  man's  charac- 
ter, is  in  general  the  degree  of  this  species  of 
sensibility,  which  may  sometimes  indeed 
amount  to  even  a  fastidious,  and  what  may 
be  called  a  nervous  delicacy;  in  consequence 
of  which,  the  best  men  are  not  unfrequently 
apt  to  class  themselves  among  the  worst. 
There  are  no  symptoms  of  disease  which  it 
is  more  difficult  to  cure,  than  the  hallucina- 
tions of  an  hypochondriacal  humiUty.    Hence 


36  REMORSE. 

arises  a  bigotted  self-reproach,  a  want  of  com- 
mon candour  in  a  man  towards  his  own  cha- 
*  racter,  an  utter  blindness  to  its  good  qualities, 
and  a  prejudiced  and  preposterous  exaggera- 
tion of  any  bad  one  that  may  belong  to  it. 

It  is  not  very  long  since  I  had  a  profession- 
al opportunity  of  knowing  something  of  the 
morbid  history  of  a  man,  who  had  succeeded 
to  a  peerage,  and  an  immense  estate,  by  the 
death  of  an  elder  brother,  with  whom  he  had 
not  been  upon  good  terms  for  some  years 
previous  to  that  event.  The  unforunate  heir 
to  the  title  and  domains,  so  severely  reproach- 
ed himself  for  that  suspension  of  fraternal 
amity,  with  regard  to  which  he  was  altogether 
innocent,  that  he  sunk  into  a  profound  melan- 
choly, from  which  I  have  reason  to  believe 
nothing  has  hitherto  been  able  to  rouse  him. 
I  knew  another  person,  who,  although  his 
life  had  been  signalized  by  the  most  active 
and  successful  exertions  in  behalf  of  his  fel- 
low-creatures, was  affected  with  a  despon- 
dency, the  burden  of  which  was,  that  he  had 
been  all  along  a  useless  member  of  society, 
and  that  the  talents  which  had  been  given  him 
had  produced  nothing  in  his  hands.  Under 
the  influence  of  this  imagination,  he  expressed 
a  kind  of  horror  as  well  as  shame,  at  the  pros- 
pect of  giving  up  a  stewardsliip,  the  duties  of 


REMORSE,  87 

which  he  h^d,  as  he  thought,  so  unfaithfully 
discharged. 

In  addition  to  the  morbid  disposition  in  a 
patient  to  calumniate  himself,  which  is  often 
a  striking  feature  of  hypochondriacal  malady, 
there  is  another  important  source  of  error, 
from  which  even  more  healthy  minds  are  not 
altogether  exempt.  We  are  apt  to  be  unduly 
biassed  in  our  feelings  with  regard  to  the  qual- 
ity of  an  action,  or  course  of  conduct,  by  cir- 
cumstances which  merely  happen  to  follow  it, 
without  having  with  it  any  necessary  or  proba- 
ble connection.  It  is  by  no  means  uncom- 
mon for  a  person,  in  reference  to  some,  per- 
haps, merely  fancied  error  of  management, 
or  neglect  in  attendance  upon  a  sick  friend,  to 
say,  "  had  he  died,  I  should  never  have  for- 
given myself;"  as  if  the  accidental  decease  of 
the  one  would  have  given  a  different  complex- 
ion to  the  previous  behaviour  of  the  other ; 
or  as  though  the  fortunate  recovery  of  the  in- 
valid would  have  exonerated  an  indolent  or 
inconsiderate  nurse  from  all  sense  of  moral 
responsibility.  A  disastrous  result  not  unfre- 
quently  reflects  the  horror  of  guilt  upon  that 
conduct,  which  would  otherwise  have  escaped 
any  injurious  imputation,  which  would  have 
been  deemed  innocent  in  its  character,  had  it 
proved  so  in  its  consequences.  Nothing  can 
6 


38  REMORSE. 

exceed  the  obvious  injustice  of  this  ex  post 
facto  mode  of  condemnation:  yet  after  all, 
the  event  is  often  the  only  criterion  by  which 
the  world,  from  its  necessarily  superficial 
knowledge,  or  from  its  careless  examination, 
can  pronounce  a  judgment  upon  the  conduct 
of  an  individual :  and  when  that  judgment 
is  unfavourable,  a  man's  bitter  reflections  upon 
himself  are  rendered  much  more  poignant,  in 
consequence  of  their  having  been  confirmed, 
as  it  were,  by  the  verdict  of  his  fellow-crea- 
tures. But,  although  the  light  of  pubhc  opin- 
ion may  sometimes  be  necessary  to  reveal, 
.  even  to  a  criminal,  the  true  colour  of  his 
offenses,  it  not  less  frequently  throws  a  false 
glare  upon  the  faults,  as  well  as  upon  the  vir- 
tues of  mankind.  People,  in  general,  are  too 
apt  to  consider  as  misconduct  what  was  merely 
mischance,  and  to  confound  calamity  with 
crime.  A  man's  character  may  be  shaded  by 
the  accidents,  as  well  as  by  the  actions,  of  his 
life.  And  perhaps,  even  conscience  itself  is 
seldom  more  deeply  bounded  by  the  stings 
of  guilt,  than  it  sometimes  has  been  by  the  ar- 
rows of  fortune. 

The  singular  history  is  well  known  of  Simon 
Brown,  the  dissenting  clergyman,  who  fan- 
cied that  he  had  been  deprived  by  the  Al- 
mighty of  his  immortal  soul  in  consequence 


REMORSE.  39 

of  having  accidentally  taken  away  the  life  of  a 
highwayman,  although  it  was  done  in  the  act 
of  resistance  to  his  threatened  violence,  and  in 
protection  of  his  own  person.  Whilst  kneel- 
ing upon  the  wretch  whom  he  had  succeeded 
in  throwing  upon  the  ground,  he  suddenly  dis- 
covered that  his  prostrate  enemy  was  deprived 
of  life.  This  unexpected  circumstance  pro- 
duced so  violent  an  impression  upon  his  ner- 
vous system,  that  he  was  overpowered  by  the 
idea  of  even  involuntary  homicide  ;  and  for 
this  imaginary  crime,  fancied  himself  ever 
after  to  be  condemned  to  one  of  the  most 
dreadful  punishments  that  could  be  inflicted 
upon  a  human  being. 

Not  many  months  ago,  I  had  an  opportunity 
of  knowing  an  instance  of  the  melanclioly  ef- 
fect of  remorse,  where  the  feeling,  although 
not  altogether  without  foundation,  was  unduly 
aggravated  by  an  accidental  association  of  oc- 
currences. 

A  young  lady  was  one  morning  requested 
by  her  mother  to  stay  at  home ;  notwithstand- 
ing which,  she  was  tempted  to  go  out.  Upon 
her  return  to  her  domestic  roof,  she  found 
that  the  parent  whom  she  had  so  recently  dis- 
obliged, had  expired  in  her  absence.  The 
awful  spectacle  of  her  mother's  corpse  con- 
nected with  the  filial  disobedience  which  had 


40  REMORSE, 

almost  immediately  preceded,  shook  her  rea- 
son  from  its  seat :  and  she  has  ever  smee  con- 
tinued in  a  state  of  mental  derangement. 

The  punishment  which  remorse  inflicts  in 
this  world,  although,  in  many  instances,  ag- 
gravated by  the  prospect,  has  no  necessary 
reference  to  a  future  state  of  retribution.  A 
man's  conscience  is  more  than  a  household 
god  to  him.  It  is  the  private  deity  of  his  bo- 
som. The  most  solemn  and  efficacious  warn- 
ings against  vice  are,  no  doubt,  furnished  by 
the  doctrines  of  revelation,  which  present 
also  the  most  powerful  encouragements  to 
the  prosecution  of  a  virtuous  course.  But  in^ 
dependently  of  all  revealed  truth,  there  is  a 
doctrine  of  the  heart,  a  religion  of  feeling 
rather  than  of  belief. 


ESSAY  VI. 


ON    SOLITUDE. 


An  hypochondriac  should  be  a  hermit  in 
abstinence,  but  not  in  soUtude.  With  no  less 
beauty  than  truth,  has  the  author  of  Rasselas 
depictured  the  insanity  of  the  astronomer,  as 
gradually  declining  under  the  influence  of  so- 
ciety and  diversion.  "The  sage  confessed, 
that  since  he  had  mixed  in  the  gay  tumults 
of  life,  and  divided  his  hours  by  a  succession 
of  amusements,  he  found  the  conviction  of  his 
authority  over  the  skies  fade  gradually  from 
his  mind  ;  and  began  to  trust  less  to  an  opin- 
ion which  he  could  never  prove  to  others,  and 
v^hich  he  now  found  subject  to  variations  from 
causes  in  which  reason  had  no  part.  If,"  says 
he  "  I  am  accidentally  left  alone  for  a  few 
hours,  my  inveterate  persuasion  rushes  upon 
my  soul ;  and  my  thoughts  are  chained  down 
by  an  irresistible  violence :  but  they  are  soon 
disentangled  by  the  Prince's  conversation; 
and  are  instantaneously  released  at  the  en- 
trance of  Pekuah.     I  am  hke  a  man  habitually 


4S  ON  SOLITUDE. 

afraid  of  spectres,  who  is  set  at  ease  by  a  lamp, 
and  wonders  at  the  dread  which  harassed 
him  in  the  dark." 

Burton  concludes  his  voluminous  work  on 
Melancholy,  with  this  summary  precept:  "Be 
not  solitary:  be  not  idle." 

The  society,  in  the  centre  of  which  a  per- 
son is  placed,  may  be  regarded  as  the  atmo- 
sphere of  his  mind :  and  to  one  whose  under- 
standing has  been  improved  to  any  conside- 
rable degree  of  refinement,  or  extent,  tliis 
mental  atmosphere  is  of  more  importance  to 
the  vigour  and  proper  condition,  even  of  his 
body,  than  almost  any  variety  in  the  modifi- 
cation or  proportion  of  those  material  ingre- 
dients with  which  his  lungs  are  supplied  by 
the  external  air.  A  residence  even  in  a  great 
and  polluted  city,  which  affords  objects  of  in- 
terest, and  motives  to  exertion,  ought  to  be 
recommended  more  especially  to  an  hypo- 
chondriacal or  nervous  patient,  in  preference 
to  the  most  highly  oxygenated  situation  in 
the  country,  where  there  is  not  enough  to 
rouse  the  sluggishness,  or  to  fill  the  vacuity, 
of  the  mind. 

Hypochondriasis  is  far  from  being  a  metro- 
politan disease.  The  multiplicity  of  external 
objects,  which,  in  a  great  capital,  are  conti- 
nually giving  a  new  direction  to  the  current 


ON  SOLITUDE.  43 

of  thought,  is  of  course  unfavourable  to  the 
uniformity  and  self-absorption  of  melancholy. 
There  are,  in  such  a  situation,  so  many  rival 
candidates  for  our  attention,  as  to  preclude 
the  exclusive  dominion  of  any  single  idea. 
Although  a  man  be  not  concerned  as  an  actor 
in  the  gay  or  the  more  serious  tumults  of  the 
world,  he  may  find,  as  a  simple  spectator, 
sufficient  engagement  to  prevent  that  dejec- 
tion of  mind  which  is  apt  to  arise  from  its 
being  unemployed.  Even  walking  the  streets 
of  London  affords  abundant  materials  for 
amusement  and  reflection. 

A  rage  for  rural  charms  is  at  the  present 
day  a  matter  more  perhaps  of  fashion  than  of 
feeling.  A  pretended  relish  for  the  beauties 
of  the  country  is  found  to  be  by  no  means  in- 
compatible with  a  real  attachment  to  vices 
which  are  considered  as  appropriate  to  the 
town;  although  in  fact  the  most  degrading 
kinds  of  vice  are  at  least  as  prevalent  at  a 
distance  from,  as  in  the  centre  of,  the  capital. 
Intemperance,  both  in  eating  and  drinking,  is 
especially  predominant  in  remote  towns  and 
provinces  where  the  inhabitants  often  devote 
a  large  portion  of  the  day  to  the  pleasures  of 
the  table,  from  having  no  other  resource  for 
the  disposal  of  their  time.  Hence  perhaps  it 
may  be  explained  how  a  country  clergyman. 


M  ON  SOLITUDE. 

more  particularly,  where  the  dull  monotony 
of  his  life  is  not  diversified  by  literature,  or 
animated  by  devotion,  is  apt  to  sink  into  the 
gloom  of  hypochondriasis,  or  into  the  gross- 
ness  of  mere  animal  indulgences. 

To  one  v\rho  has  principally  resided  in  the 
middle  of  a  great  city,  an  entire  and  perma- 
nent removal  from  it  is  a  doubtful  and  some- 
what dangerous  experiment.  The  shades  of 
solitude,  it  is  to  be  feared,  may  prove  too  dark 
for  him  who  has  been  long  used  to  the  sun- 
shine of  society. 

I  once  knew  a  man  who,  at  the  meridian  of 
his  reputation,  withdrew  from  the  performance 
of  his  professional  duty,  and  the  useful  display 
of  his  transcendent  talents  in  this  metropolis, 
to  enjoy,  as  he  thought,  in  the  obscurity  of  a 
rustic  retirement,  the  solace  of  seclusion  and 
repose.  But  he  had  not  long  been  in  this  state 
of  falsely  anticipated  happiness,  before  he  fell 
into  a  sottish  melancholy.  He  who  had  been 
distinguished  by  his  pubUc  addresses  in  favor 
of  temperance,  and  every  other  virtue,  be- 
came himself  a  victim  to  the  most  debasing 
excesses.  Had  not  this  person  renounced  the 
conspicuous  station  which  he  previously  filled 
in  society,  the  intoxication  of  public  applause 
might  have  continued  to  supersede  the  want 
of  any  more  vulgar  inebriety  5  and  for  the  in- 


ON  SOLITUDE,  45 

spiration  of  genius  would  never  probably  have 
been  substituted  the  contemptible  and  destruc- 
tive excitement  of  alcohol. 

An  unnatural  exile  from  the  world,  so  far 
from  necessarily  implying  a  superiority  to  its 
pollutions,  often  exposes  a  man  even  more 
imminently  to  the  risk  of  moral  contamina- 
tion. The  voice  of  the  appetites  and  passions 
is  heard  more  distinctly  amidst  the  stillness 
of  retirement.  The  history  of  hermits,  of 
monks,  and  even  of  nuns,  serves  abundantly 
to  demonstrate,  that  sensuality  may  be  in» 
dulged  in  solitude,  and  debauchery  practised 
in  the  desart. 

Although  habits  of  seclusion  should  be  in 
general  avoided  by  the  hypochondriacal,  it 
ought  also  to  be  remembered,  that  there  is  a 
kind  of  society  which  may  prove  more  inju- 
rious even  than  solitude  to  his  bodily  and  in- 
tellectual health.  We  are  not  perhaps  suffi- 
ciently aware,  that  nervous  complaints  are, 
through  the  medium  of  sympathy,  scarcely 
less  infectious  than  febrile  diseases.  Amongst 
many  other  instances  illustrative  of  this  opi- 
nion, I  particularly  recollect  the  case  of  an 
amiable  young  woman,  who,  although  she 
had  been  before  remarkable  for  the  uniform 
cheerfulness  and  gaiety  of  her  temper,  be- 
7 


46  ON    SOLITUDE. 

came  deeidedly,  and  often  deplorably,  deject- 
ed, in  consequence  of  having,  for  a  length  of 
time,  been  domesticated  with  an  elderly  friend, 
who  was  of  a  desponding  and  melancholy  cast. 
The  contiguous  atmosphere  of  an  hypochon- 
driacal, like  that  of  a  typhous  patient,  may,  in 
a  certain  sense,  be  said  to  be  impregnated 
with  contagion. 

It  is  principally  on  account  of  the  barbarous 
and  unphilosophical  treatment,  but  in  part 
likewise  it  may  be  owing  to  the  communica- 
tive nature  of  mental  indisposition,  that  the 
receptacles  are  too  often  found  to  be  the  nur- 
series of  insanity,  where  any,  however  small 
an  aberration  from  the  ordinary  and  healthy 
standard  of  nervous  excitement  may,  in  due 
time,  be  matured  and  expanded  into  the  full 
size  and  frightful  monstrosity  of  madness. 

The  reference  which  has  been  made  to  the 
contagious  quality  of  mental  depression,  is  by 
no  means  intended  to  prevent,  or  in  any  de- 
gree to  discourage  an  occasional  or  even  an 
habitual  association  with  the  afflicted,  when 
we  are  able,  by  our  society  and  sympathy,  to 
comfort  or  relieve  them ;  and  especially  if, 
from  the  obligations  of  gratitude  or  domestic 
connection,  they  have  more  than  an  ordinary 
claim  upon  our  fellow-feeling  and  assistance. 


ON  SOLITUDE.  47 

There  is  an  antiseptic  power  in  an  active  be- 
nevolence which  counteracts  the  putrescency 
of  melancholy ;  and  has,  in  some  instances, 
proved  an  antidote  even  to  the  gangrene  of 
despair. 


ESSAY  VII. 


EXCESSIVE    STUDY,    OR    APPLICATION    OF    MIND. 


Universal  plodding  poisons  up 


The  nimble  spirits  in  the  arteries  ; 

As  motion  and  long-during  action  tires 

The  sinewy  vigour  of  the  traveller."  Love's  Labour  Lost 


Although  intemperate  study  be  not  one  of 
those  modes  of  excess,  against  which  it  is  pe- 
culiarly necessary  to  guard  the  youth  of  the 
present  generation  ;  there  is  no  one,  I  am  con- 
vinced, from  which  more  mischievous  and 
dreadful  consequences  have  sometimes  origi- 
nated. Too  often  talents  have  been  sacrificed 
to  acquisitions,  and  knowledge  purchased  at 
the  expense  of  understanding.  Literary  glut- 
tons may  not  unfrequently  be  met  with,  who, 
intent  only  upon  feeding  a  voracious  appetite 
for  books,  accumulate  gradually  a  mass  of  in- 
digested matter,  which  oppresses,  and  in  time 
destroys  altogether  the  power  of  intellectual 
assimilation.  The  learning  of  such  men  lies 
a  dead  weight  upon  the  mind ;  and,  instead  of 
enriching  its  substance,  or  adding  to  its  vigor, 


50  EXCESSIVE  STUDY. 

serves  only  to  obstruct  the  freedom,  or  to  im- 
pede the  activity  of  its  operations.  The 
mental  enlargement  which  is  thus  produced, 
may  be  compared,  not  to  that  natural  and 
healthy  growth  which  is  attended  by  a  pro- 
portionate increase  of  strength,  but  rather  to 
the  distension  of  tympanites,  or  to  the  morbid 
dilatation  of  a  dropsy.  What  is  called  a  learned 
man,  is  often  only  a  lazy  man  in  disguise,  with 
whom  reading  is  a  refuge  from  the  more  stre- 
nuous task  of  reflection.  A  reformation  has 
taken  place  with  regard  to  literature  as  well 
as  religion.  With  the  more  rational  part  of 
mankind,  wisdom  is  no  longer  thought  to  con- 
sist in  poring  over  books,  any  more  than 
counting  beads  is  now  regarded  as  devotion. 

Many  years  ago  I  was  consulted  with  res- 
pect to  an  idiotic  man  of  erudition.  It  was  a 
case  of  idiocy  arising  from  an  overstrained  in- 
tellect. The  understanding  had  been  broken 
down,  in  consequence  of  having  been  over- 
loaded. The  head  of  the  patient,  in  its  best 
estate,  might  have  been  compared  to  a  pawn- 
broker's shop,  which  is  furnished  principally 
with  other  people's  goods ;  a  repository  mere- 
ly for  ideas,  not  a  soil  out  of  which  an  idea 
ever  grew. 

Since  the  occurrence  of  the  preceding 
case,  I  was  desired  to  give  my  opinion  in  an« 


EXCESSIVE  STUDY.  51 

other,  which  was  considerably  different  in  the 
circumstances  attending  it,  although  origi- 
nating apparently  from  a  somewhat  similar 
cause.  A  young  man  of  very  superior  ta- 
lents, a  member  at  that  time  of  one  of  the 
colleges  of  Oxford,  had  applied  most  intense- 
ly to  his  studies,  with  a  view  to  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  highest  honours  of  the  university, 
which,  however,  he  was  suddenly  thrown  into 
despair  of  attaining,  by  some  new  and  unex- 
pected rules,  that  were  introduced  with  re- 
gard to  the  mode  or  the  subject  of  the  exami- 
nations. There  was  no  just  ground  for  his 
despondency  in  consequence  of  this  innova- 
tion ;  but  the  idea  of  possible  defeat,  where  he 
had  been  previously  confident  of  victory,  so 
dwelt  upon,  and  harassed  his  mind,  as  to 
throw  it  at  last  into  a  state  of  temporary  disor- 
der, and  the  most  excessive  irritation.  This 
irritation  was  accompanied  by  a  singular  and 
sometimes  ludicrous  caprice.  He  deliberated 
for  a  long  time  before  he  could  determine  on 
the  most  indifferent  proceeding :  and  he  had 
scarcely  acted  upon,  before  he  invariably  re- 
pented of  his  decisions.  I  remember  calling 
upon  him  one  afternoon,  and  finding  him  still 
ill  bed,  from  not  having  as  yet  been  able  to 
determine  whether  he  should  put  on  his  pan- 
taloons, or  small  clothes,  for  the  day.     He  at 


52  EXCESSIVE  STUDY. 

length  fixed  upon  the  latter ;  but  had  not  been 
long  risen,  before  he  changed  that  for  a  dif- 
ferent dress.  Every  thing  he  did,  he  regret- 
ted having  done ;  and  of  what  he  had  neglect- 
ed to  do,  he  regretted  the  omission. 

It  was  for  no  long  period  that  the  patient 
remained  in  this  state  of  imbecility.  He  re- 
covered, after  a  time,  the  entire  possession  of 
his  excellent  understanding  ;  obtained  all  the 
objects  of  his  academical  ambition  ;  and  is  at 
present  a  very  respectable  member  of  a  learn- 
ed profession. 

Although  the  intellectual  faculties  will  al- 
ways be  in  danger  of  debility  or  disorder  from 
the  too  intense  or  too  long  continued  exer- 
cise of  them  ;  this  will  be  still  more  likely  to 
take  place,  when  the  exercise  of  them  has 
been  confined  to  one  or  but  a  few  subjects. 
By  sufliciently  diversifying  the  mode,  we  may 
protract  almost  indefinitely  the  period  of  ex- 
ertion. Change  of  employment  is  often  found 
to  answer  the  same  end  as  an  entire  cessation 
from  it.  The  sense  of  fatigue,  for  instance, 
which  we  experience  from  the  use  of  our 
limbs,  may  be  relieved,  not  merely  by  rest,  but 
also  by  again  using  them  in  a  different  man- 
ner. On  a  similar  principle,  if  we  have  been 
reading,  or  thinking  upon  any  subject  until 
the  attention  be  exhausted,  we  almost  uniform- 


EXCESSIVE    STUDY.  53 

ly  find  the  mind  to  be  again  roused  and  invigo- 
rated by  directing  it  to  a  subject  of  a  different 
nature.  A  person  in  whose  constitution  there 
is  reason  to  suspect  a  tendency  to  mental  dis- 
order, not  only  ought  to  be  guarded  against 
too  long-protracted  or  intense  thinking ;  but  it 
should  likewise  be  recommended  to  him  to 
avoid,  as  much  as  possible,  thinking  upon  ques- 
tions of  a  very  intricate  and  perplexing  nature. 
There  are  few  walks  of  literature  in  which 
he  may  not  be  allowed  to  amuse  himself,  pro- 
vided he  shun  with  care  the  endless  labyrinth 
of  metaphysical  speculation.  Scarcely  can  it 
appear  desirable,  or  even  safe,  to  attend  much 
to  subjects,  where  the  restlessness  of  doubt 
so  seldom  terminates  in  the  repose  of  convic- 
tion ;  or  at  least,  where  the  labour  of  the  re- 
search is  never  likely  to  be  rewarded  by  the 
importance  of  the  discovery. 


8 


ESSAY  VIII. 


TICISSITUDE  A    CAUSE,    AND    CHARACTERISTIC 
SYMPTOM    OF  INTELLECTUAL    MALADY. 

Vicissitude  constitutes  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable features,  in  the  character  of  mental 
derangement,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  fre- 
quent causes  of  its  production. 

There  is  ho  radical  distinction  between  the 
fury  of  madness  and  the  sullen  repose*  of 
melancholy.  They  are  found  in  the  same  in- 
dividual frequently,  and  often  regularly,  to  al- 
ternate. The  opposite  states  of  this  disease, 
in  many  cases  occur  as  punctually  as  the  hot 
and  cold  stages  of  an  intermittent  fever.  A 
frightful  hilarity  portends  the  certainty  of  sub- 
sequent depression.     There  is  often  in  such 

•  This  expression  is  meant  to  refer  to  the  external  physiognomy  and 
demeanour,  rather  than  to  the  internal  state  of  the  melancholic.  Under 
the  influence  of  some  intense  emotion,  a  man  may  be  made  to  assume  at 
once  the  immobility  of  marble;  but  he  c(oes  not  in  that  case  become  stone 
•wit/tin.  He  stands  fixed  as  a  statue,  but  not  as  insensible.  There  is  of- 
ten a  spasmodic  chilliness  of  the  surfiicc,  which  only  serves  to  aggravate 
that  mental  fever  from  which  it  originates.  The  supposed  torpor  of 
melancholy  is  like  that  of  a  child's  top,  which,  after  having  been  lashed 
into  the  moat  rapid  agitation,  is  said,  from  its  apparent  composure,  to  be 
asleep. 


06  VICISSITUDE.       • 

cases,  an  equinoctial  condition  of  the  mind, 
which  is  ahnost  equally  divided  between  the 
light  of  joy,  and  the  darkness  of  despondency. 
These  remarks  apply  by  no  means  exclusively 
to  the  unequivocally  insane.   They  refer  even 
more  particularly  to   those   minor  degrees, 
those  faint  and  scarcely  discernible  shades, 
those  evanescent     approximations    towards 
mental  disorder,  the  existence  of  which  might 
elude  the  vigilance,  or  be  concealed  from  the 
sagacity  of  any  but  an  experienced  and  well- 
instructed  eye.  Sudden,  and  apparently  cause- 
less elevations,  and  equally  abrupt  and  unrea- 
sonable declensions  of  vivacity,  mark  a  mor- 
bid condition  of  the  intellectual  frame.     A  so- 
ber cheerfulness,  a  quiet  happiness,  an  even- 
ness  and  tranquillity  of  mind,  are  circumstan- 
ces which  not  only  indicate  the  actual  posses- 
sion, but  are  necessary  also  to  secure  the  con- 
tinuance of  intellectual  health.     Temperance 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  virtue  of  more  com- 
prehensive range  than  what  relates  merely  to 
a  salutary  discipline  in  diet.  Temperance  im- 
plies a  certain  regulation  of  all  the  feelings, 
and  a  due  but  restricted  exercise  of  all  the 
faculties  of  the  frame.     There  is  no  species 
of  passion  or  exertion  which  may  not  pass  the 
limits  of  a  wholesome  sobriety.     A  man  may 
be  intemperately  joyful  or  sorrowful,  intern- 


J)         TICISSITUDB.  57 

perate  in  his  hopes  or  in  his  fears,  intempe- 
rate in  his  friendships  or  hostiUties,  intempe- 
rate in  the  restlessness  of  his  extravagance, 
or  in  his  greediness  of  gain.  It  may  be  re- 
marked, that,  especially  in  this  grand  mart  of 
trade,  many  cases  of  mental  derangement 
originate  from  the  alternations  of  mind  attend- 
ing upon  the  vicissitudes  of  commercial  spe-^ 
culation.  I  recollect  the  case  of  an  unfortu- 
nate young  man  who  became  a  victim  to  the 
disastrous  issue  of  a  variety  of  mercantile  ad- 
ventures. The  same  blow  which  deranged 
his  affairs,  produced  a  disorder  of  his  reason. 
His  finances  and  his  faculties  fell  together. 
The  phantoms  of  imagination  indeed  survi- 
ved, and  seemed  to  hover  over  the  ashes  of 
his  understanding.  The  demon  of  specula- 
tion, which  had  before  misled  his  mind,  now 
possessed  it  entirely.  His  projecting  spirit, 
which  was  always  more  than  moderately  in- 
trepid, took,  in  the  maniacal  exaltation  of  his 
fancy,  a  still  bolder  and  sublimer  flight.  Some 
of  his  schemes  reminded  me  of  another  mad- 
man that  I  had  heard  of,  who  planned,  after 
draining  the  Mediterranean,  to  plant  it  with 
apple  trees,  and  establish  a  cider  manufactory 
on  the  coast. 

The  progress  towards  intellectual  disorga- 
nization is  sometimes  rapid,  but  more  fre- 


$8  VICISSITUDE. 

quently  it  is  tardy  in  its  course.  The  mental 
fabric  is  often  thrown  into  ruins  by  a  single 
and  unanticipated  blow:  but  in  the  majority 
of  instances,  many  pulls,  and  frequently-reit- 
erated concussions  are  necessary,  previous  to 
the  last  crash  of  dilapidation. 

Although  an  evenness  and  quietness  of 
temper  may,  in  many  cases,  appear  connate 
or  constitutional,  equanimity  ought  not  on  that 
account  to  be  regarded  as  altogether  out  of 
the  reach  of  acquisition.  The  feelings  which 
have  been  subject  to  an  habitual  restraint  wiU 
seldom  be  found  to  rise  above  their  proper 
level.  Disproportionate  emotions  may  often, 
in  early  life  at  least,  be  corrected,  in  the  same 
manner  as  deformities  and  irregularities  of 
bodily  shape  are  by  means  of  constant  pres- 
sure forced  into  a  more  natural  figure  and  di- 
mension. 


ESSAY  IX. 


WANT   OF   SLEEP. 


Obstinate  vigilance  is  not  only  one  of  the 
most  uniform  symptoms,  but  also  very  gene- 
rally precedes,  and,  in  a  few  instances,  may 
even  itself  provoke  an  attack  of  mental  de- 
rangement. It  is  rather,  I  am  aware,  to  the 
agitating  passion  or  the  corroding  anxiety,  by 
which  the  want  of  sleep  is  most  frequently 
occasioned,  that  we  ought  in  many  cases  to 
ascribe  the  insanity  which  ensues.  But  even 
when  watchfulness  cannot  be  regarded  as  the 
only  agent  in  inducing  the  disease,  it  assists, 
and  in  no  small  degree  aggravates  the  opera- 
tion of  the  other  causes.  That  this  should  be 
the  case,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  shew  from 
circumstances  obviously  attending  the  state  of 
sleep. 

The  variety  and  rapid  succession  of  ideas 
so  remarkable  in  dreams,  cannot  but  tend  to 


60  WANT  OF  SLEEP. 

counteract  in  some  measure  that  habit  of  un- 
varied thought,  which,  when  it  occurs,  has 
been  too  generally  found  the  melancholy  pre- 
lude to  insanity. 

Sleep  generally  suspends,  and  by  this  means 
preserves  in  vigour,  the  voluntary  power  which, 
in  our  waking  state,  we  possess  over  our 
thoughts.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that 
the  power  of  the  will  over  the  current  of 
thought,  like  that  which  it  exercises  over  the 
voluntary  muscles,  sliould  require,  in  order 
permanently  to  retain  its  influence,  to  be  re- 
cruited by  frequent  and  regular  intervals  of 
repose.  Where  such  repose  therefore  has 
been  denied  for  a  considerable  period,  it 
seems  inevitable  that  this  power  should  gradu- 
ally decline,  and  be  at  length  altogether  de- 
stroyed. 

Sleep  often  affords  a  temporary  relief  from 
those  tumultuous  passions,  or  gnawing  solici- 
tudes, which,  if  their  operation  were  not  in 
this  way  frequently  interrupted,  would,  in  no 
long  time,  induce  a  disorder  of  the  mental  fa- 
culties. Constant  vigilance  will  be  likely  to 
produce  insanity,  by  subjecting  the  mind  ha- 
bitually to  that  increased  violence  of  feeling, 
which  we  must  have  observed  to  take  place 
during  the  darkness,  the  silence,  and  the  soli- 
tude of  the  night.     It  is  astonishing,  in  how 


WANT  OP  SLEEP.  61 

much  more  lively  a  manner  we  are  apt,  in 
these  circumstances,  to  be  impressed  by  ideas 
that  present  themselves,  than  when  the  atten- 
tion of  the  mind  is  dissipated,  and  its  sensibi- 
lity, in  a  considerable  degree,  absorbed  by  the 
action  of  light,  sound,  and  that  variety  of  ob- 
jects, which,  during  the  day,  operate  upon  our 
external  senses. 

From  such  considerations  it  will  be  evident, 
that  any  strong  feeling,  or  any  favourite  idea, 
will  be  apt  to  acquire  an  ascendency,  and,  in 
some  instances,  a  dominion  completely  des- 
potic over  the  mind,  when  it  becomes  the  sub- 
ject, as,  in  cases  of  obstinate  vigilance,  it  in- 
evitably will  be,  of  an  habitual  nocturnal  me- 
ditation. 

I  have  been  often  sohcited  to  recommend  a 
remedy  for  wakefulness,  or  broken  and  un- 
tranquil  sleep,  by  hypochondriac  patients  who 
had  previously  tried  all  the  medicinal,  or  di- 
etetic opiates,  as  well  as  other  methods  for 
producing  the  same  effect,  without  obtaining 
the  object  of  their  wishes.  I  in  these  cases 
advised  the  use  of  the  cold  or  the  warm  bath, 
and  generally  with  decided  advantage.  The 
cold  bath  is  by  means  a  novel  prescription, 
for  the  malady  we  are  speaking  of.  We  find 
Horace  long  ago  recommended  it, 

"  Transnanto  Tiberim,  somno  quibuB  est  opus  alto." 

9 


6g  WANT  OF  SLEEP. 

Next  to  involuntary  vigilance  ranks  the  al- 
most equal  distress  of  anxious  and  agitated 
slumber.  It  is  sufficiently  knov^n  that  the  con- 
dition of  the  mind  in  sleep  is  modified  by  the 
occurrences  and  impressions  of  the  previous 
day.  But  we  are  not,  perhaps,  equally  aware, 
that  dreams  cannot  fail  to  have  a  certain  de- 
gree of  reciprocal  influence  upon  our  ideas 
and  sensations  during  the  waking  state.  The 
good  or  the  bad  day  of  the  sick  man,  depends 
much  upon  his  good  or  his  bad  night :  and  al- 
though in  a  less  degree,  the  same  circum- 
stance affects  alike  those  who  are  considered 
as  in  a  condition  of  health.  The  due  digestion 
of  our  food  is  scarcely  more  necessary  to 
health,  as  it  relates  even  to  the  body,  and 
more  especially  as  it  concerns  the  mind,  than 
the  soundness  and  serenity  of  our  slumbers. 
After  a  night  of  fancy-created  tempest,  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  we  should  at  once 
regain  our  composure.  The  heaving  of  the 
billows  continues  for  some  time  after  the  sub- 
sidence of  the  storm.  The  troubled  vibrations 
survive  the  delusion  which  at  first  occasioned 
them.  The  nerves,  for  some  time  after  the 
cause  has  ceased,  retain  the  impression  of  dis- 
order. The  feelings  with  which  we  aw^ake, 
determine,  in  a  great  measure,  the  character 
of  the  future  day.  Each  day,  indeed,  may  be 


WANT  OF  SLEEP.  63 

regarded  as  a  miniature  model  of  the  whole 
of  human  life  ;  in  which  its  first  seldom  fails 
to  give  a  cast  and  colour  to  its  succeeding 
stages.  The  comfortable  or  opposite  condi- 
tion of  our  consciousness  immediately  subse- 
quent upon  sleep,  for  the  most  part  indicates 
the  degree  in  which  we  possess  a  sound  and 
healthy  state  of  constitution.  With  those  who 
are  in  the  unbroken  vigour  of  life,  the  act  of 
awakening  is  an  act  of  enjoyment ;  every 
feeling  is  refreshed,  and  every  faculty  is  in  a 
manner  regenerated ;  it  is  a  new  birth  to  a  new 
world.  But  to  the  hypochondriacal  invahd, 
or  to  the  untuned  and  unstrung  votary  and 
victim  of  vicious  or  frivolous  dissipation,  the 
morning  light  is  felt  as  an  intruder.  During 
his  perturbed  and  restless  process  of  conva- 
lescence from  a  diseased  dream,  he  realises, 
to  a  certain  extent,  the  well-pictured  condi- 
tion of  the  unhappy  heroine  of  the  Jineid. 

"  Revoluta  toro  est,  oculisque  en-antlbus  alto, 
Qu3esivit  coelo  lucera,  ingemiiitque  reperta." 


ESSAY  X. 


INTEMPERANCE, 


"  Living  fast,"  is  a  metaphorical  phrase, 
which,  more  accurately  perhaps  than  is  in 
general  imagined,  expresses  a  literal  fact. 
Whatever  hurries  the  action  of  the  corporeal 
functions  must  tend  to  abridge  the  period  of 
their  probable  duration.  As  the  wheel  of  a 
carriage  performs  a  certain  number  of  rota- 
tions before  it  arrives  at  its  destined  goal;  so 
to  the  arteries  of  the  human  frame  we  may 
conceive  that  there  is  allotted  only  a  certain 
number  of  pulsations  before  their  vital  energy 
is  entirely  exhausted.  Extraordinary  longe- 
vity has  seldom  been  known  to  occur,  except 
in  persons  of  a  remarkably  tranquil  and  slow- 
paced  circulation. 

But  if  intemperance  merely  curtailed  the 
number  of  our  days,  we  should  have  compa- 
ratively little  reason  to  find  fault  with  its 
effects.  The  idea  of  "  a  short  life  and  a  mer- 
ry one,"  is  plausible  enough,  if  it  could  be 
generally  realized.     But  unfortunately,  what 


66  INTEMPERANCE. 

shortens  existence  is  calculated  also  to  make 
it  melancholy.  There  is  no  process  by  which 
we  can  distil  life,  so  as  to  separate  from  it  all 
foul  or  heterogeneous  matter,  and  leave  no- 
thing behind  but  drops  of  pure  defecated  hap- 
piness. If  the  contrary  were  the  case,  we 
should  scarcely  be  disposed  to  blame  the  vital 
extravagance  of  the  voluptuary,  who,  provid- 
ed that  his  sun  shine  brilliant  and  unclouded 
as  long  as  it  continue  above  his  head,  cares 
not,  although  it  should  set  at  an  earlier  hour. 
It  is  seldom  that  debauchery  separates  at 
once  the  thread  of  vitality.  There  occurs,  for 
the  most  part,  a  wearisome  and  painful  inter- 
val between  the  first  loss  of  a  capacity  for 
enjoying  life,  and  the  period  of  its  ultimate 
and  entire  extinction.  This  circumstance,  it 
is  to  be  presumed,  is  out  of  the  consideration 
of  those  persons  who,  with  a  prodigality  more 
extravagant  than  that  of  Cleopatra,  dissolve 
the  pearl  of  health  in  the  goblet  of  intempe- 
rance. The  slope  towards  the  grave  these 
victims  of  indiscretion  find  no  easy  descent. 
The  scene  is  darkened  long  before  the  cur- 
tain falls.  Having  exhausted  prematurely  all 
that  is  delicious  in  the  cup  of  life,  they  are 
obliged  to  swallow  afterwards  the  bitter  dregs. 
Death  is  the  last,  but  not  the  worst  result  of 
intemperance. 


INTEMPERANCE.  67 

Punishment,  in  some  instances,  treads  al- 
most instantly  upon  the  heels  of  transgres- 
sion ;  at  others,  with  a  more  tardy,  although 
an  equally  certain  step,  it  follows  the  commis- 
sion of  moral  irregularity.  During  the  course 
of  a  long-protracted  career  of  excess,  the  ma- 
lignant power  of  alcohol,  slow  and  insidious 
in  its  operation,  is  gnawing  incessantly  at  the 
root;  and  often  without  spoiling  the  bloom, 
or  seeming  to  impair  the  vigour  of  the  frame, 
is  clandestinely  hastening  the  period  of  its  in- 
evitable destruction.  There  is  no  imprudence 
with  regard  to  health  that  does  not  tell:  and 
those  are  not  unfrequently  found  to  suffer  in 
the  event  most  essentially,  who  do  not  appear 
to  suffer  immediately  from  every  individual 
act  of  indiscretion.  The  work  of  decay  is,  in 
such  instances,  constantly  going  on,  although 
it  never  loudly  indicate  its  advance  by  any 
forcible  impression  upon  the  senses. 

A  feeble  constitution  is,  in  general,  more 
flexible  than  a  vigorous  one.  From  yielding 
more  readily,  it  is  not  so  soon  broken  by  the 
repeated  assaults  of  indiscretion.  A  disorder 
is,  for  the  most  part,  violent  in  proportion  to 
the  stamina  of  the  subject  which  it  attacks. 
Strong  men  have  energetic  diseases.  The 
puny  valetudinarian  seems  to  suffer  less  injury 
from  indisposition,  in  consequence  of  having 


68  INTEMPERANCE. 

been  more  used  to  it.  His  lingering,  and 
scarcely  more  than  semivital  existence  is  often 
protracted  beyond  that  of  the  more  active,  vi- 
vacious, and  robust. 

But  it  ought  to  be  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
debauchee,  that  each  attack  of  casual  or  re- 
turn of  periodical  distemper,  deducts  some- 
thing from  the  strength  and  structure  of  his 
frame.  Some  leaves  fall  from  the  tree  of  life 
every  time  that  its  trunk  is  shaken.  It  may 
thus  be  disrobed  of  its  beauty,  and  made  to  be- 
tray  the  dreary  nakedness  of  a  far  advanced 
autumn,  long  before  that  season  could,  in  the 
regular  course  of  nature,  even  have  com- 
menced. 

The  distinction,  although  incalculably  im- 
portant, is  not  sufficiently  recognized  betwixt 
stimulation  and  nutrition;  between  repairing 
the  expenditure  of  the  fuel  by  a  supply  of  sub- 
stantial matter,  and  urging  unseasonably,  or 
to  an  inordinate  degree,  the  violence  of  the 
heat  and  the  brilliancy  of  the  flame. 

The  strongest  liquors  are  the  most  weak- 
ening. In  proportion  to  the  power  which  the 
draught  itself  possesses,  is  that  which  it  ulti- 
mately deducts  from  the  person  into  whose 
stomach  it  is  habitually  received.  In  a  state 
of  ordinary  health,  and  in  many  cases  of  dis- 
ease, a  generous  diet  may  be  safely  and  even 


INTEMPERANCE.  69 

advantageously  recommended.  But,  in  diet, 
the  generous  ought  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  stimulating,  which  latter  is  almost  exclu- 
sively, but  on  account  of  its  evil  operation 
upon  the  frame,  very  improperly  called  good 
living.  The  indigent  wretch,  whose  scanty 
fare  is  barely  sufficient  to  supply  the  materials 
of  existence,  and  the  no- less-wretched  debau- 
chee, whose  luxurious  indulgence  daily  accele- 
rates the  period  of  its  destruction,  may  both 
be  said,  with  equal  propriety,  to  live  hard. 
Hilarity  is  not  health,  more  especially  when 
it  has  been  roused  by  artificial  means.  The 
fire  of  intemperance  often  illuminates,  at  the 
very  time  that  it  is  consuming,  its  victim.  It 
is  not  until  after  the  blaze  of  an  electric  cor- 
ruscation,  that  its  depredations  are  exposed. 

Stimuli  sometimes  produce  a  kind  of  artifi- 
cial genius,  as  well  as  vivacity.  They  lift  a 
man's  intellectual  faculties,  as  well  as  his  feel- 
ings of  enjoyment,  above  their  ordinary  level. 
And  if,  by  the  same  means,  they  could  be  kept 
for  any  length  of  time,  in  that  state  of  exal- 
tation, it  might  constitute  something  like  a 
specious  apology  for  having  had  recourse  to 
them.  But  unfortunately,  the  excitement  of 
the  system  can  in  no  instance  be  urged  above 
its  accustomed  and  natural  pitch,  without  this 
being  succeeded  by  a  correspondent  degree  of 
10 


70  INTEMPERANCE* 

depression.  Like  the  fabulous  stone  of  Sisy- 
phus, it  invariably  begins  to  fall  as  soon  as  it 
has  reached  the  summit ;  and  the  rapidity  of 
its  subsequent  descent  is  almost  invariably  in 
proportion  to  the  degree  of  its  previous  ele- 
vation. Genius,  in  this  manner  forcibly  raised, 
may  be  compared  to  those  fire-works,  which, 
after  having  made  a  brilliant  figure  in  the  sky 
for  a  very  short  time,  fall  to  the  ground,  and 
exhibit  a  miserable  fragment,  as  the  only  re- 
lic of  their  preceding  splendour. 

It  is  no  very  uncommon  thing,  I  believe,  in 
this  dissipated  metropolis,  for  a  woman  of 
gaiety  and  fashion,  previous  to  the  reception 
of  a  party,  to  light  up,  by  artificial  means,  her 
mind,  as  well  as  her  rooms,  that  both  may  be 
shewn  off*  to  the  best  advantage.  But  the 
mental  lustre  which  is  thus  kindled,  goes  out 
even  sooner  than  that  of  the  lamps :  and  the 
mistress  of  the  entertainment  often  finds  her- 
self deserted  by  her  spirits,  long  before  her 
company  is  dispersed.  In  like  manner,  a  man 
who  is  meditating  a  composition  for  the  pub- 
lic, is  often  tempted  to  rouse  the  torpor,  or  to 
spur  the  inactivity  of  his  faculties,  by  some 
temporary  incentive.  Gay,  if  I  mistake  not, 
in  one  of  his  letters  observes,  that  "  he  must 
be  a  bold  man  who  ventures  to  write  without 
the  help  of  wine."     But,  in  general,  it  may 


INTEMPERANCE.  71 

be  remarked,  that  the  cordials  which  an  au- 
thor may,  on  this  account,  be  induced  to  take, 
are  more  likely  to  make  himself,  than  his 
readers,  satisfied  with  his  productions.  The 
good  things  which  a  person,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  factitious  exhilaration,  may  be  stimu- 
lated to  say,  are  often,  in  their  effects,  the 
very  worst  things  that  could  possibly  have  es- 
caped him.  From  a  want  of  sufficient  steadi- 
ness or  discretion,  sparks  sometimes  may  fall 
from  the  torch  of  genius,  by  which  it  becomes 
a  firebrand  of  mischief. 

We  are  apt  to  complain  of  the  heaviness  and 
wearisomeness  of  volumes,  where  the  pains 
which  have  been  taken  by  the  writer  have  not 
been  sufficiently  concealed.  But  the  appa- 
rent result  of  excessive  care  is  much  to  be 
preferred  to  the  heedless  effiision  of  a  mind, 
over  which  it  is  too  obvious  that  the  judgment 
has  in  a  great  measure  suspended  its  control. 
It  is  far  better  that  a  work  should  smell  of  the 
lamp  than  of  the  cask. 

Intemperance  is  a  resource  especially  to  be 
dreaded  by  men  of  more  than  common  acute- 
ness  of  feeling  and  vivacity  of  imagination. 
Such  persons  are  in  general  least  able  to  sub- 
mit to  the  ennui  of  vacancy,  or  patiently  to 
bend  under  the  leaden  weight  of  incurable 
sorrow.     On  which  account,  they  too  fre- 


71^  INTEMPERANCE. 

quently  endeavour  to  fill  up  a  want  of  inte- 
rest, or  to  disperse  the  cloud  which  darkens 
their  horizon,  by  transient  remedies  that  per- 
manently ruin — by  momentary  reliefs,  which 
tend  only  to  destroy  more  effectually  the  last 
wreck  of  their  comfort  and  constitution.  Un- 
der certain  circumstances,  the  motive  is  al- 
most irresistible,  to  seek  a  repose  from  suf- 
fering in  the  opiate  of  intoxication;  in  that 
kind  of  sleep  of  the  sensibility,  out  of  which 
the  awakening  cannot  fail  to  be  attended  with 
an  accumulated  horror.  In  the  flood  of  intem- 
perance, the  afflicted  inebriate  does  not  drown, 
he  only  dips  his  sorrow,  which  will  in  gene- 
ral be  found  to  rise  again,  with  renovated  vi- 
gour,  from  the  transient  immersion.  Wine, 
during  the  treacherous  truce  to  misery  which 
it  affords,  dilapidates  the  structure,  and  under- 
mines the  very  foundations,  of  happiness. 

The  habit  of  indulgence  in  wine,  is  not  more 
pernicious,  than  it  is  obstinate  and  tenacious 
in  its  hold,  when  it  has  once  fastened  itself 
upon  the  constitution.  It  is  not  to  be  conquer- 
ed by  half  measures :  no  compromise  with  it 
is  allowable.  The  victory  over  it,  in  order  to 
be  permanent,  must  be  perfect.  As  long  as 
there  lurks  a  relic  of  it  in  the  frame,  there  is 
danger  of  a  relapse  of  this  moral  malady,  from 
which  there  seldom  is,  as  from  physical  dis- 


INTEMPERANCE.  73 

orders,  a  gradual  convalescence.  The  man 
who  has  been  the  slave  of  intemperance,  must 
renounce  her  altogether,  or  she  will  insensi- 
bly reassume  her  despotic  power.  With  such 
a  mistress,  if  he  seriously  mean  to  discard  her, 
he  must  indulge  himself  in  no  dalliance  or 
delay.  He  must  not  allow  his  lips  a  taste  of 
her  former  fascination. 

"Webb,  the  celebrated  walker,  who  was  re- 
markable for  vigour,  both  of  body  and  mind, 
drank  nothing  but  water.  He  was  one  day 
recommending  his  regimen  to  a  friend  who 
loved  wine,  and  urged  him  with  great  ear- 
nestness, to  quit  a  course  of  luxury,  by  which 
his  health  and  his  intellects  would  be  equally 
destroyed.  The  gentleman  appeared  con- 
vinced, and  told  him  "  that  he  would  conform 
to  his  counsel,  though  he  thought  he  could 
not  change  his  course  of  life  at  once,  but  would 
leave  off  strong  liquors  by  degfees."  "  By 
degrees!"  exclaims  the  other  with  indigna- 
tion :  "  if  you  should  unhappily  fall  into  the 
fire,  would  you  caution  your  servants  to  pull 
you  out  only  by  degrees?" 

To  reprobate  the  use  of  strong  liquors  al- 
together, may  be  considered  as  a  kind  oipru» 
dery  in  temperance ;  as  carrying  this  virtue 
to  an  unnecessary  and  even  preposterous  ex- 
tent.   But  prudery,  it  should  be  recollected. 


74  INTEMPERANCE. 

consists  not  so  much  in  the  excess  of  a  virtue 
as  in  the  affectation  of  it.  The  real  prudes 
in  regimen  are  those  who  "  strain  at  a  gnat, 
and  swallow  a  camel;"  who  would  have  great 
scruple  perhaps  in  drinking  a  glass  of  wine, 
but  who  would  not  hesitate  every  day  of  their 
lives  to  ingurgitate,  in  a  pharmaceutical  shape, 
draughts  composed  principally  of  the  worst 
and  most  concentrated  spirits.  Tinctures  are 
medicinal  drams.  The  habitual  use  of  them 
can  be  regarded  only  as  a  more  specious  and 
decorous  mode  of  intemperance.  In  this  may 
be  said  to  consist  the  privileged  debauchery 
of  many  a  nervous  valetudinarian.  A  female 
of  decorum  and  deUcacy  may,  in  this  way, 
ruin,  most  effectually,  her  health,  without,  in 
the  slightest  degree,  impairing  her  reputation. 
She  may  allay  the  qualms  of  the  stomach, 
without  the  danger  of  occasioning  any  more 
disagreeable  qualms  of  conscience. 

It  is  possible  for  us  to  be  intemperate  in 
our  eulogy  of  abstinence,  and  to  violate  mo- 
deration in  our  invectives  against  excess.  But 
at  the  same  time  it  is  our  duty  to  reflect,  that 
what  is  evil  in  its  essence,  no  reduction  of 
quantity  can  convert  into  good.  Vice  retains 
its  character  throughout  every  gradation  of 
its  scale.     In  none  of  its  descending  degrees 


INTEMPERANCE.  75 

can  it  produce  any  thing  better  than  more  di- 
luted and  mitigated  mischief. 

The  crime  of  intemperance,  it  must,  after 
all,  be  allowed,  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  rela- 
tive thing.  Pope  said,  that  more  than  one 
glass  of  wine  was  to  him  a  debauch.  There 
are  multitudes  who,  without  the  intellectual 
vigour,  labour  under  the  corporeal  imbecility 
of  that  celebrated  poet,  and  who  ought,  there- 
fore, to  be  equally  nice  in  their  notions  of  ex- 
cess. The  mischief,  and  of  course  the  guilt  of 
intemperance,  varies  considerably  according 
to  the  different  sex,  as  well  as  other  circum- 
stances of  the  individual.  To  the  constitution 
of  man,  for  instance,  unnecessary  incentive  is 
injurious ;  to  that  of  woman  incalculably  more 
so  ;  and  to  that  of  a  woman  in  a  state  of  preg- 
nancy, it  involves  the  danger  of  two-fold  de- 
struction. Females,  in  that  situation,  are 
loaded  with  a  double  responsibility.  By  the 
abuse  of  inebriating  liquors,  they  incur  the 
risk  of  child  murder,  in  addition  to  that  of 
suicide.  Or,  if  the  infant  of  an  intemperate 
mother  so  far  escape  as  to  be  ushered  alive 
into  the  world,  little  physical  vigour  or  intel- 
lectual health  can  be  expected  from  a  human 
being,  whose  constitution  has  been  made  to 
know  the  influence  of  alcohol,  before  even  it 
was  exposed  to  that  of  air. 


76  INTEMPERANCE « 

Men,  who,  from  an  equivocal  fejicity  of  con- 
stitution, are  prevented,  for  a  long  time,  from 
killing  themselves  by  their  excesses,  are  often 
the  indirect  means  of  destroying  many  of  their 
fellow  creatures.  Such  persons  are  referred 
to  as  living  arguments,  much  stronger  than 
any  inanimate  logic  to  the  contrary,  of  the  in- 
nocuous nature  of  intemperance.  In  their 
countenances  we  may  sometimes  read  the  in- 
dications of  almost  invulnerable  health.  It 
would  be  well,  if  also  were  inscribed  there,  in 
characters  equally  legible,  the  catalogue  of 
convivial  companions  who  have  fallen  victims 
to  their  treacherous  example. 

The  unfortunate  Burns  at  one  time  com- 
plained that  those  with  whom  he  associated, 
were  not  satisfied  with  his  conversation,  lux- 
urious as  it  must  have  been,  unless  he  gave 
them  also  a  slice  of  his  constitution.  By  uni- 
versal agreement,  he  must  be  condemned  as 
unwisely  lavish,  who  cuts  up  his  vital  principle 
for  the  entertainment  of  his  friends.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  person  may  be  thought  by  some 
too  grudgingly  parsimonious  of  his  fund  of  ^ 
health,  who  would  not  lay  out  a  little  of  it 
upon  extraordinary  occasions,  in  solemnizing, 
according  to  the  usual  form,  the  rites  of  hos- 
pitality, in  heightening  the  warmth  of  sympa- 
thy, or  in  promoting  the  vivacity  of  convivial 


INTEMPERANCE.  77 

intercourse.  But  that  man's  heart,  it  must  be 
acknowledged,  is  of  httle  value,  which  will  not 
beat  full  and  strong  upon  an  empty  stomach. 
An  after-dinner  kind  of  friendship,  the  expres- 
sion of  which  acquires  new  ardour  at  every 
fresh  filling  of  the  glass,  must  be  expected  to 
evaporate  with  the  fumes  of  the  liquor  which 
inspired  it.  The  tide  of  liberal  sentiment  re- 
tires, in  such  cases,  as  soon  as  the  animal  spi-^ 
rits  begin  to  ebb.  The  heat  produced  by  aU 
cohol  ought  not  to  be  mistaken  for  the  glow 
of  virtue.  He  whose  pitch  of  generosity  or 
goodness  is  regulated  by  the  state  of  his  cir^ 
culation,  is  entitled  to  little  confidence  or  res- 
pect, in  any  of  the  important  connections  or 
social  intercourses  of  life.  The  steadiness  of 
a  sober  and  substantial  benevolence,  is  to  be 
compared,  only  by  way  of  contrast,  to  the  pre- 
carious vicissitudes  of  that  person's  temper, 
with  whom  kindness  is  not  a  healthy  habit,  but 
a  feverish  paroxysm,  and  who,  although  con- 
stitutionally, or  in  the  ordinary  course  of  his 
life,  sensual  or  selfish,  may  be  occasionally 
wrought  up,  by  factitious  means,  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  a  jovial  and  fugitive  philanthropy. 

in  connection  with  the  subject  of  intempe- 
rance, it  may  be  proper  to  remark,  that  there 
are  cases  in  wfiich  extraordinary  stimuli  may 
be  useful  in  deducting  from  the  operation  of 
n 


78  INTEMPERANCE. 

causes  still  more  injurious,  or  more  rapidly 
fatal  in  their  effects.  When  bodily  pain,  for  in- 
stance, has  risen  to  a  certain  point,  wine,  bran- 
dy, or  laudanum,  although  they  should  always 
with  caution,  may  sometimes  with  propriety,  be 
applied ;  as,  by  affording  temporary  relief,  they 
spare  for  a  time  at  least,  the  wear  and  tear 
that  is  produced  by  too  acute  and  violent  sen- 
sations. Such  a  seasonable  use  of  them  may 
be  estimated  upon  the  whole,  as  a  saving  to 
the  constitution.  It  is  likewise  a  doctrine  of 
some  importance,  and  which  ought  to  be  acted 
upon  by  the  medical  practitioner,  that  v^hen- 
ever  a  patient  expresses  a  violent  appetite, 
which,  from  his  never  having  been  known  to 
experience  it  before,  appears  to  have  been 
created  by  his  disease,  it  ought  in  general 
to  be  regarded  as  indicating  what  is  subser- 
vient to  its  cure.  As,  in  the  lower  animals, 
which  are  constitutionally  deficient  in  reason, 
instinct  supplies  its  place ;  so,  during  the  pe- 
riod that  the  mental  power  in  man,  is  in  some 
measure  impaired  by  bodily  disorder,  nature 
provides  him  also  with  a  temporary  instinct, 
which  is  still  more  sure  in  its  dictates  than  the 
reasoning  faculty. 

We  ought  not  to  dismiss  the  subject  of  the 
present  essay  without  remarking,  that  the  best 
way  of  attempting  to  conquer  in  another  the 


INTEMPERANCE.  79 

vice  of  intemperance,  especially  when  it  has 
been  induced,  as  is  very  frequently  the  case,  by 
some  permanent  or  weighty  cause  of  sorrow, 
is  to  picture  to  the  mind  of  the  patient  the 
agreeable  change  in  his  situation,  which  would 
be  likely  to  arise  from  an  alteration  in  his 
mode  of  life,  rather  than  to  present  to  him 
those  deeper  shades  of  misery  which  must 
successively  ensue  from  the  continuance  of 
his  ignominious  servitude,  and  habits  of  fatal, 
although  joyless,  indulgence.  The  latter, 
though  the  more  common  mode  of  endea- 
vouring to  effect  the  reformation  of  an  unfor- 
tunate inebriate,  is  in  general  calculated  only 
to  confirm  and  aggravate  the  evil,  by  sinking 
his  spirits  still  lower,  and,  in  some  instances, 
perhaps  converting  the  languor  of  dejection 
into  the  mental  palsy  of  despair.  It  is  a  con- 
dition scarcely  distinguishable  from  despair, 
which  can  alone  account  for  the  obstinacy 
vdth  which  many  an  intemperate  person  de- 
liberately pursues  his  disastrous  course.  In 
his  mind,  the  heavy  foot  of  calamity  has  tram- 
pled out  every  spark  of  hope.  He  feels  as  if 
he  could  scarcely  be  in' a  more  wretched,  or 
is  ever  likely  to  be  in  a  better  condition.  The 
exaggerated  dimensions  of  his  present  mi- 
sery, so  completely  fill  his  eye,  as  to  prevent 
him  from  seeing  any  thing  beyond  it.     He  is 


80  '  INTEMPERANCE. 

habitually  in  a  state  of  agitation,  or  despon- 
dency, similar  to  that  in  which  suicide  is  com- 
mitted. His  is  only  a  more  dilatory  and  das- 
tardly mode  of  self  destruction.  He  may  be 
compared  to  a  person  who,  in  attempting  to 
cut  his  throat,  from  a  want  of  sufficient  cour- 
age or  decision,  lacerates  it  for  some  time,  be- 
fore he  completely  perpetrates  his  purpose. 


ON    THE  USE    OF    OPIUM. 

Inebriety  is  not  properly  confined  to  the 
use  of  fermented  liquors.  The  tipplers  of 
laudanum  are  sots,  although  of  another  sort. 
There  is  sometliing  peculiarly  plausible  and 
seducipg  in  this  mode  of  fascinating  the 
sensations.  Opium  does  not,  in  general,  as 
wine  is  apt  to  do,  raise  a  tumult  of  the 
feelings,  or  involve  the  intellect  in  clouds  ; 
but  acts  more  like  oil  poured  upon  a  tumul- 
tuous sea,  which  tends  to  allay  the  agitation  of 
the  billows,  and  induces  an  agreeable  stillness 
and  tranquillity.  Instead  of  lowering  man  to 
a  level  with  the  beasts,  it  often  invests  him, 
for  a  time,  with  the  consciousness  and  at  least 
fancied  attributes  of  a  superior  being  ;  but  he 
is  soon  stripped  of  his  shadowy  and  evanes- 
fsent  prerogative,  and  is  made  to  suffer  all  the 


INTEMPERANCE.  81 

horrors  and  humiliation  of  a  fallen  angel. 
The  confessions  of  many  a  miserable  hypo- 
chondriac, who  has  been  in  the  habit  of  hav- 
ing recourse  to  opium  for  rehef,  justify  this  re- 
presentation from  the  charge  of  caricature. 
Grievous  as  is  the  depression  which  takes  place, 
as  the  second  effect  of  fermented  liquors,  that 
which  succeeds  to  the  excitement  produced 
by  laudanum,  is  still  more  intolerable.  It  is 
of  course  a  task  less  difficult  to  refrain  from 
the  former  than  the  latter,  when  the  latter  has 
been,  for  many  years,  regularly  applied  to  for 
temporary  comfort  or  support,  in  a  desertion 
or  prostration  of  the  spirits.  The  late  Dr. 
Heberden  was  of  opinion,  that  it  is  more  easy 
to  relinquish  opium  than  wine  :  and  therefore, 
in  cases  which  may  seem  to  require  either  the 
one  or  the  other,  he  recommends  the  former 
in  preference  to  the  latter.  My  own  compa- 
ratively contracted  experience  would  incline 
me,  in  the  same  circumstances,  to  give  diflfer- 
ent  advice. 

I  have  known  only  one  case  in  which  an  in- 
veterate opium  taker  has  had  resolution 
enough  to  dispel  the  charm  which  had  long 
bound  him  to  its  use.  This  patient  was  in  the 
custom  of  employing  it  in  that  concentrated 
form  of  the  drug,  which  has  received  the  ap- 
pellation of  the  black  drop.     The   dreadful 


V:.- 


82  INTEMPERANCE. 

sensations  which  he  experienced  for  a  con- 
siderable period,  after  having  refrained  from 
his  wonted  cordial,  he  was  unable  to  express, 
any  more  than  the  gratitude  which  he  felt  to- 
wards his  physician,  for  having  strenuously 
and  repeatedly,  and  at  length  successfully, 
urged  him  to  an  abstinence  from  so  delusive 
and  bewitching  a  poison. 

When  opium  is  employed  as  a  remedy,  in 
cases  of  merely  physical  disease,  it  may  not 
be  liable  to  the  same  objection ;  although,  even 
in  that  class  of  maladies,  it  ought  to  be  in  gene- 
ral reserved  for  occasions  of  urgency  or  peril. 
When  used  for  a  length  of  time,  without  any 
considerable  intervals,  its  bad  effects  upon  the 
constitution  will  be  found  to  accumulate, 
whilst  its  alleviating  influence  over  trouble- 
some and  painful  symptoms,  becomes  almost 
every  day  less  observable. 


PROSPERITY  OFTEN   A  SOURCE    OF  INEBRIETY. 

The  meaning  of  the  word,  stimulus,  is  in 
general  confined  to  fermented  liquors,  or  to 
drugs,  such  as  that  which  we  have  noticed  in 
the  preceding  section.  But  it  may,  in  a  more 
comprehensive  and  philosophical  sense,  be 
made  to  include,  not  only  what  acts  imme- 


INTEMPERANCE.  83 

diately  upon  the  stomach,  but  likewise  a  vast 
variety  of  moral  causes,  which  operate  more 
directly  upon  the  passions  or  imagination.  A 
man  may  be  intoxicated  by  good  news  as  well 
as  by  brandy.  In  this  way  prosperity  not  un- 
frequently  proves  as  unwholesome  as  intem- 
perance. Many  have  thus  fallen  victims  of  what 
has  been  considered  their  good  fortune.  A 
sudden  accession  of  opulence  or  honour  will 
often  obscure  the  faculties  as  much  as  the 
fumes  of  drunkenness.  A  sudden  gush  of 
happiness  has  been  known  to  occasion  imme- 
diate death  ;  and  in  other  instances  has  given 
rise  to  what  is  incalculably  worse,  paroxysms 
which  have  terminated  in  incurable  insanity. 
In  the  celebrated  South  Sea  speculation,  it 
was  remarked  that  few  lost  their  reason  in 
consequence  of  the  loss  of  their  property,  but 
that  many  were  stimulated  to  madness  by  the 
too  abrupt  accumulation  of  enormous  wealth. 
In  other  lotteries,  as  well  as  in  the  general 
lottery  of  life,  dreadful  effects  have,  perhaps, 
more  frequently  arisen  from  the  prizes  than 
the  blanks.  It  has  often  happened,  that  an  ad- 
venturer, in  addition  to  the  original  price  of 
his  ticket,  has  paid  for  his  chance-gotlen 
wealth  by  a  forfeiture  of  his  reason.  The 
same  turn  of  the  wheel  which  has  raised  him 
into  affluence,  has  sunk  him  also  into  idiocy, 


84!  INTEMPERANCE. 

or,  by  no  advantageous  change,  has  transform- 
ed the  mendicant  into  the  maniac. 

Adversity,  that "  tamer  of  the  human  breast," 
acts,  on  the  other  hand,  as  a  salutary  sedative 
upon  the  irritabiUty  of  our  frame  ;  and  may 
thus  not  only  secure  the  subjugation  of  our 
passions,  and  protect  the  sanity  of  our  intel- 
lect ;  but  also  may,  in  some  instances,  tend  to 
protract  life,  almost  in  proportion  as  it  deducts 
from  the  vivacity  of  its  enjoyment. 


ESSAY  XL 


THE    EXCESS   OF    ABSTINENCE    INJURIOUS. 

The  author  was  once  acquainted  with  a  per- 
son, who,  not  from  actual  poverty,  but  from 
an  hypochondriacal  fear  of  its  approach,  denied 
himself,  not  merely  the  enjoyments,  but  Uke- 
wise  the  wholesome  comforts,  and  almost  the 
meagre  necessaries  of  existence.  He  insula- 
ted himself  from  convivitil  and  all  social  in- 
tercourse, that  he  might  avoid  the  expenses 
attending  them  ;  and  refused  what  was  almost 
essential  to  immediate  sustenance,  lest  he 
might  ultimately  want  the  means  of  procuring 
it.  He  died,  in  fact,  of  extreme  debihty  and 
emaciation  of  mind  and  body,  from  neither  of 
them  having  been  regularly  provided  with  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  its  appropriate  aliment. 
Temperance  is  moderation.  In  the  proper 
sense,  therefore,  of  the  word,  we  may  be  in- 
temperately  abstemious,  as  well  as  intemper- 
ately  luxurious  and  self-indulgent.  That  de- 
gree of  privation  which  is  unnatural  or  unrea- 
12 


86  ABSTINENCE. 

sonable,  proves  no  less  destructive  than  su- 
perfluous and  superabundant  gratification.    It 
is  possible,  indeed,  by  simple  and  almost  in- 
noxious means,  to  relieve  ourselves  from  the 
burden  of  excess.     But  it  is  not  possible  long 
to  bear  with  impunity,  or  even  without  a  fatal 
result,  the  inconveniences  of  a  scanty  and  de- 
ficient supply.     The  vital  flame  requires  a 
perpetual  renovation  of  fuel.  The  waste  which 
is  incessantly  going  on,  of  internal  strength, 
must  be  as  incessantly  compensated  by  rein- 
forcement from  without.     There  is  no  inte- 
rior and  independent  spring  of  action  and  sup- 
port.    Sound  does  not  exist  in  the  Eolian 
harp,  but  is  produced  merely  by  the  breeze 
that  passes  over  it.     Life  in  like  manner  is 
not  an  essential  part  or  ingredient  of  the  hu- 
man body,  but  is  every  moment  generated  by 
the  external  powers  that  are  continually  ope- 
rating upon  its  sensible  and  delicate  organi- 
zation.    Take  away  the  action  of  air  in  the 
former  instance,  and  that  of  all  external  sti- 
muli in  the  latter,  the  harp  will  instantly  be- 
come silent  5  and  the  body  cease  to  exhibit 
any  symptom  or  expression  of  vitality. 


ESSAY  XII. 


MOREID    AFFECTIONS   OF    THE    ORGANS  OF   SENSE. 

Morbid  affections,  of  any  individual  organ 
of  sense,  for  the  most  part  originate  from, 
although  in  some  instances  they  produce  a 
more  general  affection  of,  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. 

Lord  Orrery,  in  his  account  of  the  life  and 
writings  of  Swift,  observes,  that  this  extraor- 
dinary man  attributed  to  a  surfeit,  that  giddi- 
ness in  the  head  which  sometimes  for  a  long- 
er, and  sometimes  for  a  shorter  continuance, 
pursued  him,  until  it  seemed  to  complete  its 
conquest,  by  rendering  him  the  exact  image 
of  one  of  his  own  Struldbruggs  -,  a  miserable 
spectacle,  devoid  of  every  appearance  of  hu- 
man nature,  except  the  outward  form.  The 
noble  author's  own  opinion,  with  regard  to 
the  origin  of  Swift's  mental  disease,  is  both 
more  ingenious  and  more  plausible.  It  may 
not  be  improper  to  quote  his  words. 

^'  The  absolute  naturals  are  owing  to  a 
wrong  formation  of  the  brain,  as  to  accident, 


88  MORBID  AFFECTIONS  OF  THE 

in  their  birth,  or  the  dregs  of  fever,  or  other 
violent  distempers.  The  last  was  the  case  of 
the  Dean  of  St  Patrick's,  according  to  the  ac- 
count sent  me  by  his  relations,  Mr.  Whiteway 
and  Mr.  Swift,  neither  of  whom,  I  think,  make 
the  least  mention  of  a  deafness  that  from  time 
to  time  attacked  the  Dean,  and  made  him 
completely  miserable.  You  will  find  him 
complaining  of  this  misfortune  in  several  parts 
of  his  writings,  especially  in  the  letters  to  Dr. 
Sheridan.  Probably  some  internal  pressure 
upon  his  brain,  might  first  have  affected  the 
auditory  nerves,  and  this  by  degrees  have  in- 
creased so  as  entirely  to  stop  up  that  fountain 
of  ideas  which  had  before  spread  itself  in  the 
nnost  diffusive  and  surprising  manner." 

Whatever  may  be  the  physiological  mode 
of  accounting  for  it,  there  is  scarcely  any 
symptom  more  frequently  attendant  upon  ma- 
niacal or  hypochondriacal  complaints  than  a 
defect,  excess,  or  some  kind  of  derangement 
in  the  faculty  of  hearing.  The  celebrated  Dr. 
Johnson  complains  at  one  time,  that  he  could 
not  hear  the  town  clock  distinctly ;  and  at 
another  states  that  he  distinctly  heard  his  mo- 
ther, who  had  been  dead  many  years,  calling 
out  "  Sam."  Cowper,  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
a  friend,  speaks  thus  of  his  infirmity ;  "  I  have 
a  perpetual  din  in  my  head ;  and  though  I  am 


ORGANS  OF  SENSE.  89 

not  deaf,  hear  nothing  right,  neither  my  own 
voice  nor  that  of  others.  I  am  under  a  tub, 
from  which  tub  accept  my  best  love."  There 
are  few  hypochondriacs  that  do  not  know,  as 
well  as  Cowper,  what  it  is  to  be  under  a  tub ; 
or  who  cannot  perfectly  understand  and  sym- 
pathise with  this  invalid  in  most  other  pas- 
sages where  he  refers  to  his  morbid  feelings. 

I  once  attended  a  nervous  patient,  who  was 
afflicted  with  a  noise  in  her  head,  which  she 
compared  to  that  of  the  guns  firing  at  the 
Tower,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  she 
then  resided.* 

Mental  impressions,  we  know,  act  upon  the 
nervous  system  in  general,  but  especially  up- 
on that  part  of  it  which  is  more  immediately 
subservient  to  the  function  of  vision.  The 
appearance  of  the  eye  is  in  general  a  faithful 
index  of  the  state  of  the  mind.  It  has  been 
remarked  by  those  who  have  had  peculiar  op- 
portunities of  observing,  that  it  is  beyond  even 
the  cunning  of  maniacal  hypocrisy  to  disguise 
the  appropriate  expression  of  the  eye.  The 
eye  seems  to  be  acted  upon  almost  equally 
by  all  the  passions,  whether  of  a  pleasurable 

*  One  circumstance  that  makes  me  recollect  this  case  is,  tliat  the 
lady  referred  to  had  a  very  fine  head  of  hair:  and  upon  my  advising 
that  her  head  should  be  shaved  in  order  that  a  large  blister  might  be 
applied  to  it,  she  objected  to  this  sacrifice,  and  observed,  that  "  she 
would  rather  trust  to  Providence." 


90  MORBID  AFFECTIONS  OF  THE 

or  painful  nature.  It  cannot  then  appear  im- 
possible,  that  highly-excited  or  long-protracted 
emotion,  should,  in  some  instances,  more  es- 
pecially where  there  has  previously  existed 
any  ocular  debility  or  defect,  act  so  powerfully 
as  to  impair  the  structure,  and  altogether  to 
destroy  the  capacity  of  that  organ. 

I  had  occasion  to  peruse  many  years  ago,  a 
letter  from  a  poor  French  emigrant,  in  which 
he  gave  a  pitiable  account  of  his  situation ; 
and,  amongst  other  things,  complained  of  so 
great  a  degree  of  opthalmic  weakness,  that 
"  he  was  unable  to  shed  even  one  tear  for  all 
that  he  had  left  behind  him."  This,  no  doubt, 
arose  in  part  from  the  many  tears  which  he 
had  already  shed.  The  heart  is  not  so  soon 
exhausted  as  the  eye. 

During  my  attendance  upon  the  Finsbury 
Dispensary,  a  remarkable  instance  of  dimness 
of  sight  occurred,  that  had  for  some  time  previ- 
ously been  gradually  approaching  towards  ab- 
solute blindness,  which,  indeed,  had  actually 
taken  place  in  one  of  the  eyes.  The  patient 
first  perceived  the  dimness  the  day  after 
she  had  been  frightened  by  witnessing  a  vi- 
olent paroxysm  of  epilepsy,  with  which  her 
husband  had  been  attacked  the  preceding 
night.  Since  that  time,  she  had  herself  be- 
come, although  not  in  the  least  so  before,  ex^ 


ORGANS  OF  SENSE.  91 

tremely  liable  to  fits ;  and  was  apt  to  fall  clown 
insensible  upon  occasions  of  the  slightest  de- 
gree of  agitation  or  surprise.  Her  dimness  of 
sight  seemed  to  consist,  not  in  an  injured  state . 
of  the  eye,  but  in  a  debility  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem in  general,  which  appeared  more  particu- 
larly in  that  delicate  and  exquisitely-irritable 
part  of  it  which  is  destined  for  the  purposes  of 
vision.  The  capacity  of  seeing  with  the  eye 
that  was  not  altogether  blind,  was  intermit- 
tent, "  going  and  coming,"  to  use  her  own 
comparison,  "  like  the  sun,  when  a  cloud 
passes  over  it."  The  patient  had  likewise 
been  subject  to  a  deafness,  that  might  be 
traced  to  the  same  circumstance  as  gave  rise 
to  her  opthalmic  malady.  Both  symptoms 
had,  in  all  probability,  a  common  origin  in  ner- 
vous weakness  or  derangement. 

Diseases  of  the  eye,  when  they  arise  from 
mental  influence,  or  from  any  disorder  of  the 
general  health,  whilBh  in  a  large  proportion  of 
cases,  upon  a  strict  examination,  they  will  be 
found  to  do,  are  not  to  be  cured  by  exterior 
and  local  applications,  but  principally,  if  not 
exclusively,  by  those  means  which  are  calcu- 
lated to  restore  the  strength,  or  to  reform  the 
character  of  the  constitution.  Trifling  with, 
and  teasing  the  eye  with  drops  of  lotion,*  or 

•  Philosophy,  I  fear,  does  not  warrant  much  faith  in  a  lotion." 

Johns'jiCs  Letters. 


^S  MORBID  AFFECTIONS  OF  THE 

particles  of  unguent,  is  only  betraying  the  pa- 
tient into  a  flattering  and  faithless  anticipation 
of  recovery,  without  any  chance  of  eradicat- 
ing, or  even  reaching  the  root  of,  the  disease. 

In  the  washes  for  the  eye,  opium  is,  1  be- 
lieve, in  general,  if  not  the  only  efficient,  at 
least  the  most  important  ingredient.  It  is  said, 
that  a  late  celebrated  oculist,  after  more  than 
forty  years'  trial  of  this  substance  as  an  appli- 
cation, which  he  conceived  beneficial  to  the 
eye,  found  out  at  length  that  it  had  an  injuri- 
ous, rather  than  a  salutary,  operation  upon 
that  organ.  It  is  a  matter  of  equal  surprise  and 
regret,  that  a  fact  so  important  should,  for  so 
long  a  period,  have  escaped  the  discernment 
of  any  watchful  and  intelligent  observer  ;  or 
that  it  should  not  have  before  occurred  to  a 
man  at  all  in  the  habit  of  reasoning  or  reflec- 
tion, that  opium,  frequently  administered  for 
a  course  of  time,  either  to  the  stomach  or  the 
eye,  must  tend,  instead  of  strengthenmg,  to 
impair  its  structure,  and  more  permanently  to 
disorder,  instead  of  re-establishing  its  func- 
tions. 

In  my  practice  at  the  institution  already 

mentioned,  a  considerable  number  of  the  cases, 

not  only  of  opthalmia,  but  of  acute  and  chro- 

'  nic  head-ache,  and  other  distressing  nervous 

aff'ections,  seemed  to  have  been  occasioned 


ORGANS  OP  SENSE.  93 

by  the  too  strenuous  and  continued  exertion 
of  the  optic  nerve,  in  the  minute  operations 
of  watch-making,  an  occupation  which  used  to 
employ  no  small  proportion  of  the  mechanics 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Finsbury  Dispen- 
sary.    Inflammation,  or  debiMty  of  the  eye, 
cannot  but  be  produced  by  the  excessive  or 
unseasonable  exercise  of  it :  and  the  diseased 
state  of  that  organ  is  likely  to  be  communi- 
cated by  sympathy  to  the  brain  in  particular, 
and  in  many  instances  even  to  the  whole  ner- 
vous system.  Hence,  from  an  injury,  often  ap- 
parently unimportant,  inflicted  upon  the  deli- 
cate instrument  of  vision,  hysteria,  epilepsy, 
hypochondriasis,  and  even  absolute  and  obsti- 
nate melancholy  have  not  unfrequently  ori- 
ginated. 

One  case  of  melancholy  I  well  recollect, 
which  was  remarkable,  from  the  patient  not 
having  been  afflicted  by  it  until  after  the  depri- 
vation of  his  sight.  Reflection  upon  that 
loss  could  not  fail,  for  a  time,  to  have  been 
itself  a  source  of  uneasy  feelings,  but  the  con- 
tinuance and  gradual  aggravation  of  his  de- 
pression, may  be  better  accounted  for,  by  his 
not  being  longer  able,  in  consequence  of  thi^ 
loss,  to  pursue  his  usual  active  employment, 
by  its  withdrawing  from  him  the  natural  and 
exhilarating  stimulus  of  light,  and  by  its  pre- 
13 


94  MORBID  AFFECTIONS   OF  THE 

eluding  altogether  the  possibility  of  that 
amusement  and  diversion  of  mind,  which,  in 
general,  is  so  constantly  derived  from  the  con- 
templation of  external  objects  ;  to  which  may 
be  added,  that  by  confining  the  sensibility 
within  a  smaller  compass,  it  condensed  and 
increased  its  force.  Notwithstanding  all  this, 
we  find  that  tlie  blind,  when  in  society,  and 
engaged  in  conversation,  are  in  general  more 
cheerful  than  other  men.  But  from  their  appa- 
rent, and  even  actual  state  of  spirits,  when  exhi- 
larated by  social  intercourse,  we  are  by  no 
means  to  infer,  that  their  general  condition 
of  feeling  is  of  the  same  character.  Society 
is  the  proper  sphere  of  their  enjoyment.  In 
proportion  as  the  total  obstruction  of  light 
shuts  out  the  principal  inlet  to  solitary  amuse- 
ment, they  must  feel  delight  in  that  which 
arises  from  a  communication  with  their  fel- 
low-creatures. Conversation  acts  upon  them 
as  a  dram ;  but  when  tSat  stimulus  is  with- 
drawn, their  depression  is  likely  to  be  aggra- 
vated by  the  temporary  elevation  which  it  had 
induced.  This,  however,  does  not  appear  to 
be  uniformly  the  case.  I  knew  a  man  of  a 
superior  understanding,  who,  according  to  vul- 
gar prejudice  and  phraseology,  had  the  7?iis- 
fortune  to  be  blind.  The  conversation  hap- 
pened to  turn,  in  his  presence,  upon  a  person 


ORGANS   OF   SENSE.  95 

who  was  subject,  without  any  apparent  caiisCj 
to  a  lowness  of  sphits,  which,  though  many 
things  had  been  tried,  nothing  had  been  able 
to  remove.  Upon  the  Wind  man  being  asked 
what  he  thought  would  be  most  likely  to  cure 
the  malady  of  this  mental  invalid,  he  empha- 
tically replied,  "  put  out  his  eyes." 


#• 


ESSAY  XIII. 


MENTAL    DERANGEMENT    NOT    INDICATIVE    OF 
CONSTITUTIONAL    VIGOUR    OP    MIND. 

An  insane  patient,  who  had  been  so  for 
about  a  year,  and  had  once  before  been  af- 
flicted in  the  same  way,  was,  on  account  of 
his  cries  disturbing  the  neighbourhood,  remo- 
ved to  an  asylum  at  some  distance  from  town. 
In  consequence  of  circumstances  attending  his 
removal,  he  caught  cold,  which  was  imme- 
diately followed  by  symptoms  of  malignant 
sore  throat  and  intermittent  fever.  These 
complaints  were  speedily  relieved  by  the  libe- 
ral administration  of  bark  and  wine :  and  the 
patient  afterwards  had  no  threatening  of  a 
relapse  to  his  insanity.  The  result  in  this  in- 
stance of  tonic  and  stimulating  remedies 
served  somewhat  to "  countenance  an  opinion 
which  the  author  had  long  been  inclined  to 
entertain,  that  remedies  of  an  invigorating 
character  may  be  applied  with  safety,  and 
even  advantage,  in  certain  cases  of  mental 
derangement. 


98  INSANITY  IMPLIES  DEBILITY, 

Violence  \s  not  strength.  In  typhus  fever, 
for  instance,  of  which,  in  its  advanced  stage, 
delirium  is  the  most  prominent  and  alarming 
symptom,  excessive  debility  constitutes  the 
characteristic,  if  not  even  the  essence  of  the 
disease.  This  delirium  seldom  comes  on  un- 
til the  strength  of  the  patient  has  arrived  at 
almost  its  lowest  point  of  reduction ;  better 
evidence  can  scarcely  be  required,  that  the 
former  is  produced  by  the  latter :  and,  from 
analogy,  it  may  not  unfairly  be  inferred,  that 
in  other  cases  where  phrenzy  takes  place,  it 
may  arise  from  a  similar  cause.  This  analo- 
gy might  be  corroborated  by  other  maladies ; 
hysteria,  for  instance,  which,  although  it  is 
most  apt  to  occur  in  relaxed  constitutions, 
and  although  its  violent  attacks  are  generally 
occasioned  by  circumstances  immediately  pre- 
ceding them,  that  weaken  or  exhaust,  often 
exhibits  symptoms  of  morbid  energy,  much 
greater  than  the  patient  would  have  been  ca- 
pable of  displaying  in  a  state  of  the  most  per- 
fect health  and  vigour. 

These  fugitive  and  abrupt  exhibitions  of 
morbid  energy  are  very  far  from  indicating 
genuine  strength,  which  shews  itself  only  in 
a  capacity  for  regular  and  continued  action. 
The  human  machinery  is  of  so  complicated  a 
structure,  and  its  motions,  although  various, 


INSANITY  IMPLIES  DEBILITY.  99 

are  all  so  connected  and  dependent  upon  each 
other,  that  a  derangement  in  one  part,  may 
produce  a  temporary  augmented  action  in  the 
whole  machine ;  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
wheels  of  a  watch,  if  the  balance  be  removed, 
will  run  down  with  increased  and  inordinate 
force. 

Mental  diseases  are  well  illustrated  by  those 
of  the  body.  The  paroxysms  of  mania  are 
convulsions  of  the  mind*;  those  of  melancho- 
lia its  paralysis.  It  is  a  common,  but  an  ill- 
founded  notion,  that  madness,  in  any  of  its 
modifications,  arises  for  the  most  part  from 
an  excess  of  intellectual  vigour :  it  is  not  in 
every  case,  but  in  many  cases  it  is,  a  symptom 
of  radical  imbecility,  or  of  premature  decay. 

*  Mania  in  general  bears  a  striking  analogy  to  chorea.  Constant, 
irregular,  and  involuntary  motions  of  the  body  characterise  the  one  .■ 
motions,  precisely  cox-respondent  of  the  mind,  constitute  the  other. 


ESSAY  XIV. 


PHYSICAL    MALADY    THE    OCCASION  OF    MFNTAL 
DISORDER. 

In  the  preceding  essay,  an  instance  was 
stated,  in  which  derangement  of  mind  seem- 
ed to  have  been  cured  by  the  opportune  oc- 
currence of  a  bodily  complaint.  I  recollect  a 
remarkable  case,  in  which,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  derangement  of  the  body  unequivocally  pro- 
duced a  disorder  of  the  understanding.  This 
case  occurred  at  one  of  those  critical  periods 
of  life,  at  which  the  female  sex  are  particu- 
larly liable  to  an  anomalous  variety  of  dis- 
eases, especially  to  those  to  which  there  is 
any  hereditary  or  constitutional  predisposi- 
tion. The  poor  woman  fancied  that  she  saw 
her  bed  encompassed  with  a  legion  of  devils, 
impatient  to  hurry  her  to  eternal  torments. 
She  derided  medicine,  and  obstinately  and 
haughtily  resisted  its  application.  In  a  very 
short  time,  however,  an  alteration  having 
taken  place  in  her  physical  condition,  she  re- 
pented of  her  folly,  and  smiled  at  the  men- 
14 


102  PHYSICAL     MALADY,  ^C. 

tion  of  her  former  terrors.*  To  so  humilia- 
ting a  degree  do  the  floating  particles  of  mat- 
ter which  surround,  and  still  more  those  which 
enter  into  the  interior  composition  of  our 
frame,  exhibit  their  influence  in  exciting,  re- 
pressing, or  disordering  the  phenomena  of  hu- 
man intelligence  !  "  Toi  qui  dans  ta  folie 
prends  arrogamment  le  titre  de  Hoi  de  la  na- 
ture; toi  qui  mesures  et  la  terre  et  les  cieux  ;  toi 
pour  qui  ta  vanite  s'imagine  que  le  tout  a  ete 
fait,  parceque  tu  es  intelligent,  ilne  fautqu'un 
leger  accident,  qu'une  atome  deplacee,  pour 
te  degrader,  pour  te  ravir  cette  intelligence, 
dont  tu  parois  si  fier." 

By  being  so  much  in  the  habit  of  observing 
the  influence  of  physical  causes  upon  the  men- 
tal powers  and  feelings,  the  practitioners  of 
medicine  are  particularly  in  danger  of  lean- 
ing towards  the  doctrine  of  materialism. 
Speculations  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the 
vital  or  intelUgent  principle  in  man,  are  in- 
volved in  so  much  obscurity,  as  to  allow  greater 
scope  for  the  display  of  a  fertile  imagination, 

*  It  may  be  here  not  out  of  place  to  remark,  that  in  those  cases  in 
which  mental  derangement  has  originated  from  a  physical  state  that  ex- 
ists only  for  a  short  period,  or  from  the  sudden  impression  of  an  unlook- 
ed-for calamity,  an  expectation  of  cure  may,  for  the  most  part,  be  'not 
unreasonably  entertained.  But  when,  on  the  other  hand,  by  a  Ufe  M, 
debauchery,  or  the  corroding  operation  of  any  chronic  passion,  the  strif^ 
ture  of  the  mind  has  been  disorganized,  there  is  in  general  httle  hope, 
from  either  medical  or  moral  regimen,  of  an  entire  and  permanent  res- 
toration. 


PHYSICAL    MALADY,    ^C.  103 

than  for  the  sober  exercise  of  the  reasoning 
faculty.  The  clouds  in  which  this  subject  is 
enveloped,  the  rays  of  genius  may  illuminate, 
but  cannot  disperse.  The  unwarrantable  bold- 
ness and  decision  with  which  many  are  apt  to 
speak  upon  a  question,  which,  from  an  incu- 
rable deficiency  of  data,  admits  of  no  satisfac- 
tory conclusion,  argues  a  more  than  ordinary 
imbecility,  rather  than  any  superiority  of  un- 
derstanding. Genuine  intrepidity  of  every 
species,  is  naturally  allied  to  modesty.  There 
is  a  chaste  and  sober  scepticism.  When  we 
profess  that  there  is  no  moral  evidence  so  im- 
maculately clear,  as  to  preclude  all  obscura- 
tion of  doubt,  we  acknowledge  merely  the 
present  imperfection  and  immaturity  of  our 
nature.  A  peremptory  positiveness  of  opin- 
ion, as  well  as  a  rashness  of  action,  is  natural 
to  the  ardour  and  inexperience  of  youth  ;  but 
diffidence  gradually  grows  upon  declining  life. 
Unlimited  dogmatism^  in  almost  every  case, 
affords  suspicion  of  very  limited  information. 
In  the  degree  in  which  our  actual  knowledge 
advances,  we  increase  likewise  our  acquaint- 
ance with  its  comparative  deficiency.  As  the 
circle  of  intellectual  light  expands,  it  widens 
proportionably  the  circumference  of  apparent 
darkness. 


ESSAY  XV. 


ON  THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  LONDON. 

It  is  not  so  much  the  heat  itself,  as  the  va- 
rious and  accumulated  pollution  with  which,  in 
the  warmer  months,  the  atmosphere  of  the 
metropolis  is  impregnated,  that  tends  to  dis- 
order and  debilitate  the  constitution  of  its  in- 
habitants. 

"  It  is  not  air :  but  floats  a  nauseous  mass 

"  Of  all  obscene,  corrupt,  offensive  things."* 

Happy  are  they,  who,  unconfined  by  profes- 
sional or  any  other  chains,  find  themselves  at 
this  season  of  the  year,  at  liberty  to  enjoy  the 
salutary  fragrance  of  vegetation,  or  to  seek  re- 
freshment and  relief  in  the  still  more  enliven- 
ing breezes  and  invigorating  exhalations  of 
the  sea.  London,  which  at  other  times  serves 
as  a  kind  of  nucleus  for  an  accumulated 
population,  seems,  in  the  latter  part  of  sum- 

•  Armstrong. 


106  ATMOSPHERE   OF    LONDON. 

mer,  to  exert  a  centrifugal  force,  by  which  are 
driven  to  a  distance  from  it  a  large  proportion 
of  those  inhabitants,  who  are  not  fastened  to 
the  spot  upon  which  they  reside,  by  the  rivet 
of  necessity,  or  some  powerful  local  obliga- 
tion. Men,  whose  personal  freedom  is  not 
restricted  within  geographical  limits,  may  glad- 
ly escape  in  the  autumnal  state  of  the  atmo- 
sphere, from  the  perils,  real  or  imaginary, 
of  this  crowded  and  artificially  heated  capital. 

Pericula  mille  sjevae  urbis. 

An  already  immense  and  incessantly  ex- 
panding city,  on  every  side  of  which  new 
streets  are  continually  surprising  the  view,  as 
rapid  almost  in  their  formation,  as  the  sudden 
shootings  of  crystalization,  it  is  fair  to  ima- 
gine, cannot  be  particularly  favourable  to  the 
health  of  that  mass  of  human  existence  which 
it  contains.  In  London,  when  a  man  receives 
into  his  lungs  a  draught  of  air,  he  cannot  be 
sure  that  it  has  not  been  in  some  other  per- 
son's lungs  before.  This  second-hand  at- 
mosphere cannot  but  be  injurious  to  health, 
as  the  idea  of  it  is  offensive  to  the  imagination. 
But  it  is  a  matter  of  at  least  doubtful  specula- 
tion, how  far  those  maladies  which  are  attri- 
buted exclusively  to  the  air  of  this  great  town, 
may  not  arise  from  the  more  noxious  influ- 


ATMOSPHERE    OF    LONDON.  107 

ence  of  its  fashions  and  its  habits.  As  the  bo- 
dy varies  Uttle  in  its  heat  in  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  external  temperature  to  which  it  may  be 

'-a 

exposed ;  so  there  is  an  internal  power  of  re- 
sistance in  the  mind,  which,  when  roused  into 
action,  is  in  most  instances,  sufficient  to  coun- 
teract the  hostile  agency  of  external  causes. 
I  have  been  acquainted  with  more  than  one 
instance  of  a  female  patient,  who,  at  the 
time  that  she  felt  or  fancied  herself  too  feeble 
or  enervated  to  walk  across  a  room,  could, 
without  any  sense  of  inconvenience  or  fatigue, 
dance  the  greater  part  of  the  night,  with  an 
agreeable  partner.  So  remarkably  does  the 
stimulus  of  an  enlivening  and  favourite  amuse- 
ment awaken  the  dormant  energies  of  the  ani- 
mal fibre.  Upon  a  similar  principle,  they  are, 
for  the  most  part,  only  the  vacant  and  the  idle, 
the  "  lillies  of  the  valley  that  neither  toil  nor 
spin,"  who  suffer  in  any  considerable  degree 
from  the  closeness  of  the  air,  or  the  altera- 
tions of  the  weather.  One  whose  attention  is 
constantly  occupied,  and  whose  powers  are 
actively  engaged,  will  be  found  to  be,  in  a  great 
measure,  indifferent  to  the  elevations  and  de- 
pressions of  the  barometer. 

The  gloomy  month  of  November  has  been 
regarded,  but  perhaps  with  little  justice,  as  pe- 
culiarly disposing  to  melancholy,  and  the  fa- 


108  ATMOSPHERE   OF  LONDON. 

vourite  season  of  suicide.  The  dark  hues  of 
the  mind  are  not  in  general  reflected  from  the 
sky  :  and  the  preternaturally  exalted  excite- 
ment of  mania,  soars  in  general  above  atmo- 
spheric influence. 

There  are  cases,  indeed,  in  which  the  dis- 
eased apprehensions  of  an  hypochondriac  are 
relieved  or  aggravated  by  the  changes  of  the 
weather,  where,  when  the  sun  shines,  even 
his  mind  seems  to  be  irradiated  by  its  influ- 
ence, and  scarcely  a  cloud  can  obscure  the 
face  of  nature,  without  at  the  same  time  cast- 
ing a  melancholy  shade  over  his  speculations. 


ESSAY  XV~L 


DYSPEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC   DISEASES, 


«  We're  not  ourselves. 
When  nature  being  opprest,  commands  the  mind 
To  suffer  with  the  body."  Shakespeare. 


When  disease  originates  from  an  improper 
indulgence  in  the  more  solid  luxuries  of  the 
table,  it  ought,  perhaps,  in  general,  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  condition  of  debihty,  occasioned 
in  a  great  measure  by  fatigue  of  the  corporeal 
powers.  The  epicure  is  not  aware  what  hard 
work  his  stomach  is  obliged  to  undergo,  in 
vainly  struggling  to  incorporate  the  chaotic 
mass  with  which  he  has  distended  and  op- 
pressed it.  It  is  possible  to  be  tired  with  the 
labour  of  digestion,  as  well  as  with  any  other 
labour.  The  fibres  connected  with  this  pro- 
cess are  wearied  by  the  execution,  or  by  the 
ineffectual  endeavour  to  execute  too  heavy  a 
task,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  limbs  are  apt 
to  be  wearied  by  an  extraordinary  degree  of 
pedestrian  exertion.  Gluttony  is  one  of  the 
most  frequent  conductors  to  the  grave.  When 
15 


110       DYSPEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC  DISEASES. 

even  the  table  may  be  said  to  groan  under  the 
load  of  luxury,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  sto- 
mach also  should  feel  the  burden.  The  poor- 
er orders  of  the  community,  fortunately  for 
themselves,  cannot  afford  to  ruin  their  con- 
stitutions by  the  inordinate  gratification  of  their 
appetites.  It  is  one  of  the  unenviable  privi- 
leges of  the  comparatively  wealthy,  to  be  able 
to  gormandize  to  their  own  destruction. 
Those  who  are  not  indigent,  although  they 
may  escape  many  other  trials,  have  often  to 
undergo  the  severest  trials  of  resolution. 

The  appetite  is  increased  much  beyond 
what  is  natural,  by  the  excitement  of  miscel-  - 
laneous  and  highly  seasoned  dishes,  of  which 
we  can  eat  more,  although  we  can  digest  less, 
than  of  plainer  and  less  varied  diet.  The  list 
of  our  viands  would  be  sufficiently  numerous, 
although  we  were  to  strike  all  poisons  out  of 
our  bill  of  fare. 

The  observance  of  fasts  is  a  wholesome  form 
of  superstition.  The  omission  of  them  in  the 
protestant  calendar,  was,  perhaps,  as  it  relates 
to  health,  an  unfortunate  result  of  the  refor- 
mation. Though  no  longer  regarded  by  us 
as  religious  institutions,  it  would  be  desirable 
that  some  of  them  at  least  should  still  be  kept 
with  a  kind  of  sacred  punctuality,  as  salutary 
intervals  of  abstinence,  which  give  to  the  sto- 


DYSPEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC  DISEASES.      Ill 

mach  a  periodical  holiday,  and  afford  an  occa- 
sional respite  from  the  daily  drudgery  of  di- 
gestion. 

I  recollect  a  case  of  unsightly  and  unwieldy 
corpulence,  which  appeared  gradually  to  have 
accumulated  in  consequence  of  gross  feeding, 
connected  with  a  life  of  sluggish  inactivity. 
From  an  ignoble  indulgence  in  habits  of  re- 
pletion and  repose,  this  patient  seemed  ulti- 
mately to  sink  under  the  weight  of  abdominal 
oppression. 

I  have  known  several  instances  of  dyspep- 
sia, which  might  be  in  part  accounted  for  from 
the  state  of  the  teeth,  which  were  so  decayed 
as  to  be  unequal  to  the  due  performance  of 
their  appropriate  office.  When  it  is  consider- 
ed how  much  health  and  life  itself  depend 
upon  the  proper  assimilation  of  our  food;  that 
such  an  assimilation  must  be  preceded  by  an 
adequate  digestion ;  and  that  this  last  process 
cannot  well  be  effected  without  a  previous  and 
sufficient  mastication,  the  functions  of  the 
teeth  will  seem  to  approach  in  importance,  to 
that  of  the  essential  viscera.  The  wanton  or 
unnecessary  extraction  of  a  tooth,  ought  to  be 
avoided,  not  on  account  merely  of  the  mo- 
mentary pain  of  the  operation,  or  of  the  ap- 
pearance of  decay  and  dilapidation  it  may  give 
to  the  face,  but  because  it  involves  the  loss  of 


llg     DYSPEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC  DISEASES. 

one  of  the  instruments  most  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  preservation  of  vigour,  and 
even  with  the  continuance  of  vitaUty.  A  cir- 
cumstance which  has  almost  constantly  been 
observed  to  occur  among  the  phenomena  of 
an  extraordinary  and  healthy  old  age,  is  the 
unimpaired  integrity  of  the  teeth.  Their  de- 
cay, which  for  the  most  part  accompanies, 
cannot  fail  likewise  to  contribute  to  and  ac- 
celerate that  progressive  reduction  of  sub- 
stance and  of  strength  that  so  generally  cha- 
racterises the  more  advanced  stages  of  our 
existence. 

Hepatic  disease,  although  belonging  more 
properly  to  a  warmer  climate,  forms  a  large 
proportion  in  the  class  even  of  English  mala- 
dies. 

It  were  to  be  wished  that  the  commence- 
ment of  mischief  in  an  organ  so  important  as 
the  liver,  should  invariably  announce  itself  by 
some  obtrusive  and  unequivocal* symptom. 
But  this  essential  viscus  has  often  been  found 
after  death  to  be  indurated,  or  otherwise  in- 
jured, without  any  marked  indication  of  dis- 
ease during  the  life  of  the  patient,  except 
dyspepsia,  or  simple  indigestion.  Fortunately, 
however,  in  the  greater  number  of  cases,  les3 
doubtful  signs  of  this  disorder  shew  them- 
iselves  before  it  is  too  late  to  avert  its  most 


DYSPEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC  DISEASES.       113 

lamentable  consequences.  A  sense  of  heavi- 
ness in  the  upper  part  of  the  abdomen,  an 
obtuse  pain  below  the  ribs  on  the  right  side, 
a  troublesome  acidity  or  flatulence  in  the  first 
passages,  with  an  uneasiness  when  lying  on 
the  left  side,  are  grounds  of  reason^^ble  appre- , 
hension.  When  a  hon  vivant,  who  has  in- 
dulged in  those  habits  of  life,  which,  in  this 
country  at  least,  are  observed  to  be  by  far  the 
most  frequent  exciting  causes  of  liver  com- 
plaints, begins  to  be  conscious  of  these  symp- 
toms, no  time  ought  to  be  lost  in  reforming 
his  regimen,  as  well  as  in  having  recourse  to 
the  modes  of  recovery  which  are  to  be  deri- 
ved from  the  medical  art.  On  a  close  inter- 
rogation of  invalids  with  disorganized  livers, 
we  shall  often  discover  that  they  can  recollect 
the  exact  time  since  which  they  always  found 
themselves  lying  on  the  right  side,  on  awak- 
ing in  the  morning.  It  is  probable  that  inward 
sensations  during  sleep,  unconsciously  inclined 
the  patient  to  take  this  posture.  We  should, 
however,  be  aware  that  an  equal  ease  in  lying 
on  either  side,  is  no  demonstration  of  the  liver 
being  in  a  sound  condition.  A  sallowness  of 
the  skin,  and  particularly  a  light  yellow  colour 
of  the  forehead,  may  be  classed  among  the 
signs  of  hepatic  disorganization ;  so  may  like- 
wise a  pain  under  the  right  shoulder  blade, 


114     DYSEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC  DISEASES. 

and  what  is  particularly  worthy  of  notice,  a 
regular  morning  cough,  followed  by  the  ejec- 
tion of  a  little  froth  from  the  mouth.  The 
liver  may  sometimes  be  felt  hard  or  enlarged. 
But  there  is  no  one,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  who 
,would  defer  his  apprehensions  until  they  were 
forced  upon  him,  by  this  palpable  completion 
of  evidence. 

After  all,  a  large  proportion  of  what  are  in 
general  called  cases  of  disordered  liver,  may 
be  more  properly  considered  as  cases  of  bro- 
ken-up  habits  or  worn-out  stamina.  The  con- 
stitution is,  perhaps,  not  so  often  affected  in 
the  first  instance,  by  a  disease  of  the  liver,  as 
the  liver  is  by  the  previous  disease  or  decay 
of  the  constitution.  On  this  account  it  is  not 
altogether  by  the  remedies  which  seem  to 
have  a  more  particular  operation  upon  this 
organ  that  its  irregularities  are  to  be  correct- 
ed, or  its  obstructions  to  be  removed ;  but  in 
a  great  measure  by  those  other  medicines 
and  methods  of  treatment  that  are  calculated 
to  restore  lost  tone  to  the  general  fibre,  or  to 
prop  for  a  period  the  tottering  pillars  of  the 
frame. 

There  are,  no  doubt,  articles  in  the  Mate- 
ria Medica,  which  do  not  rank  with  tonics  or 
corroborants,  that  often  have  a  decidedly  and 
eminently  favourable  operation  in  hepatic  dis- 


DYSPEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC  DISEASES.       115 

orders.  Of  these  the  most  distinguished  is 
calomel.  But  calomel,  powerful  and  benefi- 
cial as  it  unquestionably  is,  when  seasonably 
and  discreetly  administered,  has  sometimes, 
perhaps,  been  extolled  with  an  intemperate 
zeal,  and  appears  to  have  been  employed  in 
certain  cases  with  too  little  reserve  and  dis- 
crimination. There  is  reason  to  believe,  that 
many  a  patient,  supposed  to  be  hepatic,  but  in 
fact  only  dyspeptic,  has  fallen  a  martyr  to  a 
mercurial  course  ;  a  course  which  has  often 
been  persisted  in  with  a  perseverance  undaunt- 
ed by  the  glaring  depredation  which  it  pro- 
duced. Mercury  would  be  more  cautiously 
administered,  if  sufficient  attention  were  paid, 
not  only  to  its  immediate  and  more  apparent, 
but  also  to  its  ultimate  and  comparatively  clan- 
destine operation  upon  the  human  frame. 

In  the  treatment  of  any  malady,  our  object 
ought  to  be  not  merely  to  remove  it,  but  to 
do  so  at  as  little  expense  as  possible  to  the  sta- 
mina of  the  patient,  hi  too  rudely  eradicating 
a  disease,  there  is  danger  lest  we  tear  up  a  part 
of  the  constitution  along  with  it.  One  of  the 
most  important  circumstances  that  distinguish 
the  honourable  and  reasoning  practitioner  from 
the  empiric,  is,  that  the  former  in  his  endea- 
vour to  rectify  a  temporary  derangement, 
pays,  at  the  same  time,  due  regard  to  the  per- 


116      DYSPEPTIC  AND  HEPATIC  DISEASES. 

f.. 

manent  interests  and  resources  of  the  consti- 
tution. 

The  inebriate,  who,  from  having  hardened 
or  mutilated  his  hepatic  organs,  or  one  who, 
from  having  mangled  his  health  by  a  different 
mode  of  indiscretion,  has  recourse  to  the  re- 
medial influence  of  mercury,  ought  to  be 
aware  that  a  poison  may  lurk  under  the 'me- 
dicine, which  apparently  promotes  his  cure ; 
that  although  it  prove  ultimately  successful  in 
expelling  the  enemy,  it  often,  during  the  con- 
flict, lays  waste  the  ground  upon  which  it  ex- 
ercises its  victorious  power. 


'    ESSAY  XVII. 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  SPASMODIC   AND   CONVULSIVE 
AFFECTIONS. 

In  the  formidable  family  of  diseases,  there  is 
no  individual  more  to  be  dreaded  than  palsy, 
unless,  indeed,  it  extend  its  influence  to  the 
faculties  of  intellect,  as  well  as  to  those  of 
muscular  exertion.  Idiocy  is  a  mournful  ob- 
ject of  contemplation.  But  the  second  child- 
hood of  the  mind  is  less  to  be  pitied  than  that 
of  the  body,  when,  in  the  latter  case,  the  facul- 
ties of  memory  and  reflection  remain  compa- 
ratively unimpaired. 

I  remember  a  young  man,  who,  in  conse- 
quence of  having  caught  cold  during  a  me- 
dicinal course,  to  which  he  had  frequently  be- 
fore been  under  the  necessity  of  submitting, 
was  attacked  with  a  palsy  of  the  left  side, 
which  soon  became  apparently  universal,  ex- 
cept in  the  muscles  about  the  neck  and  face. 
He  presented  the  spectacle  of  a  living  head 
moving  upon  a  motionless  and  apparently  dc- 
16 


118  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  §C. 

ceased  trunk.  Death  soon,  however,  com= 
pleted  its  task ;  and  hberated  the  sufferer  from 
the  horrors  of  consciousness. 

More  than  one  instance  of  paralysis,  which 
I  have  met  with,  has  seemed  to  consist  in  a 
gradual  mouldering  away  of  the  constitution. 
The  warm  bath,  which  often  proves  one  of 
the  most  efficacious  cordials  for  decayed  ener- 
gies, was,  in  these  cases,  only  of  fugitive  ad- 
vantage. It  may  not  be  unworthy  of  remark, 
that  in  instances  of  advanced  palsy,  or  even 
natural  decline  of  strength,  the  immediate  pre- 
liminary to,  and  proxim.ate  cause  of,  death,  is 
very  frequently  an  obstruction  or  an  irrepar^ 
able  debility  of  the  urinary  organs,  which  does 
not,  for  the  most  part,  originate  so  much  from 
any  local  injury  or  partial  disorganization,  as 
from  the  general  feebleness  or  impaired  pow- 
ers of  the  frame. 

The  application  of  blisters,  which,  in  a  state 
of  torpor,  or  morbid  sleep  of  the  faculties,  is 
so  well  calculated  to  rouse  them  into  activity, 
is  seldom  of  much  avail,  and  often  is  posi- 
tively injurious  in  cases  of  radical  exhaustion 
or  slowly-induced  decay.  The  troublesome 
effect,  however,  which,  under  such  circum- 
stances, they  are  particularly  apt  to  produce 
upon  the  urinary  organs,  may  be  obviated,  or 
prevented  from  leading  at  least  to  any  serious 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C.  119 

consequence,  by  methods  of  relief  which  are 
of  obvious  and  easy  application. 

Intemperance  is  among  the  most  frequent 
causes  of  paralysis :  but  it  is  not  always  an  in- 
temperance in  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors, 
but  sometimes  in  business  requiring  anxious  and 
unseasonable  exertions.  One  instance  of  para- 
lysis I  have  known,  in  which  the  subject  of  the 
attack  had  through  life  been  remarkably  abste- 
mious in  his  regimen ;  but  had  stretched  and 
strained  his  faculties  by  a  praise-worthy  effort 
to  secure  to  himself  and  his  family  the  reason- 
able comforts  of  life,  and  a  respectable  inde- 
pendence. Labour  is  the  lot  of  man,  and  per- 
haps his  most  genuine  and  lasting  luxury.  But 
although  no  ordinary  error,  it  is  possible  to 
be  industrious  over-much.  We  may  some- 
times over- work  the  machine,  although  more 
frequently  we  allow  its  springs  to  rust  for 
want  of  sufficient  use.  The  patient  above  re- 
ferred to,  observed,  that  "  it  was  very  strange 
a  man  should  be  so  ill,  and  not  know  it."  The 
doctors  whom  he  saw,  and  the  medicines  that 
he  took,  were  to  him  almost  the  only  indica- 
tions of  his  labouring  under  disease.  But  this 
is  by  no  means  uncommon  in  paralytic  affec- 
tions, more  especially  when  they  extend  their 
influence  to  the  intellectual  powers.  The 
muscles  of  a  man's  face  may  be  distorted  by 


120  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C. 

this  malady  without  his  being  aware  of  it,  un- 
less he  be  made  so  by  the  testimony  of  a 
friend,  or  the  accidental  reflection  of  a  mirror. 
Unfortunately,  or  perhaps  happily,  there  is  in 
such  cases  no  mirror  for  the  mind ;  and  as 
for  a  friend,  we  are  seldom  willing  to  acknow- 
ledge a  man  as  such,  who  endeavours  to  con- 
vince us  of  our  mental  decline.     The  Bishop 
of  Grenada,  in  Gil  Bias,  is  a  well  drawn  copy 
of  a  multitude  of  originals,  which  are  conti- 
nually occurring  in  actual  life.  Pride  consoles 
us  for  the  failure  of  reason :  and  in  propor- 
tion as  we  forfeit  our  title  to  the  respect  of 
others,  we  are  often  apt  to  acquire  an  addi- 
tional reverence  for  ourselves.     A  once-cele- 
brated beauty,  sees  but  too  distinctly  the  re- 
flection of  her  faded  charms.     But  a  man,  the 
flower  of  whose  genius  is  withered,  for  the 
most  part  remains  ignorant  of  the  melancholy 
alteration.     The  dim  eye  of  dotage  cannot 
discern  its  own  decay.     Hence  arises  the  re-^ 
luctance  v/hich  in  en  often  shew  to  resign  sta- 
tions in  society,  to  the  duties  of  which  they 
have  long  ceased  to  be  equal.     Next  to  the 
glory  arising  from  a  course  of  illustrious  and 
profitable  activity,  is  the  dignity  and  the  grace 
of  a  seasonable  and  voluntary  retirement. 

To  the  man  of  genius  more  especially,  pa« 
ralysis  teaches  an  edifying  lesson  of  humili- 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  §C.  121 

ation.  It  is  that  unjustly  envied  class  of  men, 
which  is  omst  conspicuously  open  to  its  at- 
tacks. A  dazzling  display  of  intellect  menaces 
its  premature  extinction.  Of  a  life  signalized 
by  mental  exercise  and  splendor,  palsy  too 
frequently  marks  the  melancholy  conclusion. 
Marlborough,  in  his  last  years  a  victim  to  this 
dreadful  malady,  observed,  to  one  admiring 
his  portrait,  "  Yes  ;  that  was  a  great  man  ;" 
such  a  remnant  at  least  of  understanding  was 
still  preserved  as  enabled  him  to  recollect  the 
brilliancy  of  his  former  career.  How  differ- 
ent are  the  feelings  which  are  excited  by  be- 
holding the  ruins  of  a  superannuated  mind, 
from  those  with  which  we  contemplate  a  di- 
lapidated specimen  of  ancient  architecture, 
more  especially  if  the  latter  has  been  associa- 
ted in  our  recollections,  with  examples  of  for- 
mer heroism  or  devotion.  The  remaining 
fragments  of  a  decayed  abbey  or  a  time-worn 
castle,  strike  us  as  venerable  or  sublime.  But 
who  ever  heard  of  a  venerable  idiocy,  or  a 
sublime  paralysis  ? 

In  an  inveterate  case  of  idiocy  or  of  para- 
lysis, affecting  more  particularly  the  intellect, 
which  once  came  under  my  observation,  I  was 
paiticular  in  my  enquiries  with  regard  to  the 
habits  of  living,  professional  employment,  and 


13S  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C. 

former  character  of  the  patient.  I  found  thai 
he  was  originally  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary 
acute ness  and  capacity  for  business  ;  that  he 
had  been  always  abstemious  in  his  diet ;  and 
had  spent  the  greatest  part  of  his  life  in  an  of- 
ficial situation,  which  required  no  unseasona- 
ble or  unwholesome  degree  of  labour,  or  any 
extraordinary  anxiety  or  perturbation  of  mind. 
The  mental  imbecihty  seemed  in  this  instance 
not  to  originate  from  any  of  its  usual  or  na- 
tural sources.  Upon  further  scrutiny,  how- 
ever, it  came  out  that  the  patient  had,  for  a 
considerable  period,  been  in  the  habit  of  taking 
"  patent  drops,"  which  produced  a  gradually 
progressive  weakness,  and  ultimately  an  en- 
tire destruction  of  the  intellectual  and  active 
powers. 

About  two  years  ago,  I  met  with  a  remark- 
able case,  which  strikingly  exemplified  the 
connection  and  affinity  that  may  exist  between 
what  are  called  "  bilious  affections"  and  those 
which  belong  more  apparently  and  decidedly 
to  the  nervous  system.  The  patient  referred 
to,  had,  in  consequence  of  a  severe  domestic 
privation,  been  seduced  into  habits  of  intem- 
perance, which,  for  two  years,  seemed  to  have 
no  effect  but  upon  the  liver,  producing  at  near- 
ly regular  intervals  of  ten  days,  vomitings  of 
bile,  occasionally  accompanied  by  a  diarrhsea, 


PALSY,    IDOCY,    ^C.  1S3 

which,  when  combined  with  the  former,  of 
course  assimilated  the  disease  to  the  character 
of  cholera.  For  the  considerable  period  above- 
mentioned,  his  only  apparent  complaint  was 
what,  in  popular  and  fashionable  language,  is 
called  the  "  bile."  After  the  lapse,  however, 
of  somewhat  more  than  two  years  from  the 
commencement  of  his  intemperate  habits, 
without  having  received  any  precautionary 
or  prefatory  intimation,  he  was  surprized  by  a 
seizure  which  paralized  one  half  of  his  body, 
dividing  it  longitudinally  into  two  equal  sec- 
tions, the  one  dead  to  all  the  purposes  of  sen- 
sation or  voluntary  motion,  the  other  retain- 
ing the  functions  and  privileges  of  vitality,  al- 
though in  some  measure,  of  course,  clogged 
and  impeded  by  the  impotent  and  deceased 
half  to  which  it  was  united.  When  I  saw  him 
last,  he  had  remained  three  years  in  this  truly 
melancholy  state.  At  least,  during  that  time, 
he  had  experienced  no  important  or  perma- 
nent amelioration,  nor  any  evident  tendency 
towards  the  recovery  of  his  corporeal  powers. 
His  mind  also  seemed  to  have  shared  in  the 
paralysis.  This  was  more  particularly  obvi- 
ous in  the  lapses  of  his  recollection.  His 
memory  had  been  maimed  by  the  same  blow 
which  had  disabled  one  side  of  his  body.  His 
recollection  with  regard  to  things,  did  not  seem 


IS-i  PALSY,   IDIOCY,    §C. 

to  be  much  impaired :  but  it  was  surprisingly 
so  with  regard  to  the  denominations  of  per- 
sons or  places.  He  has  often  forgotten  the 
name  of  an  intimate  friend,  at  the  very  time 
that,  with  the  most  unaffected  cordiality,  he 
was  shaking  hands  with  him.  Upon  enquiry, 
it  appeared  that  the  pernicious  habits  of  the 
patient  were  still  persisted  in  ;  a  circum&tance 
which,  alone,  was  sufficient  to  account  for  the 
uninterrupted  continuance  of  his  disorder. 

In  this  case,  nothing  could  be  more  evident 
than  that  the  bilious  symptoms  with  which  he 
was  first  affected,  and  the  nervous  complaints 
which  succeeded,  both  originated  from  one 
source :  and  this  may  give  a  hint  to  those  who 
are  much  troubled  with  the  bile,  as  it  is  called, 
especially  when  it  has  been  occasioned  by 
the  same  means  as  in  the  instance  just  stated, 
that  unless  they  seasonably  reform  their  regi- 
men, they  may  be  at  no  great  distance  from  a 
paralytic  seizure. 

I  recollect  another  case  of  palsy,  which  was 
rather  remarkable,  both  from  some  of  the 
symptoms  which  attended  it,  and  from  the 
manner  in  which  the  patient  was  restored. 
This  person  was  perfectly  sensible  of  every 
circumstance  of  the  attack.  He  felt  as  if  the 
ground  were  sinking  from  under  his  feet,  and 
all  the  objects  before  him  appeared  to  him 


PAIiSY,    IDIOCY,    ^C*  135 

inverted.  He  suddenly  became  incapable  of 
moving  any  limb  or  part  of  his  body,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  his  recollection  and  other  fac- 
ulties of  mind,  were  not,  in  any  sensible  de- 
gree,  impaired.  Instead  of  bleeding,  or  any 
other  violent  method  of  depletion  being  had 
recourse  to,  stimulants,  both  externally  and  in- 
ternally, were  administered.  The  patient  was 
thus  gradually  aroused,  and  a  resuscitation 
took  place  of  those  powers,  which  might  per- 
haps have  been  irrecoverably  extinguished  by 
an  ill-timed  expenditure  of  the  vital  fluid. 

Palsy,  although  often  apparently  sudden  in 
its  attacks,  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  disease  of 
gradual,  and  sometimes  of  clandestine  growth. 
The  circumstances,  at  least,  which  indicate  the 
embryo  existence  of  this  malady  in  the  con- 
stitution, are  seldom  understood,  or  sufficient- 
ly attended  to.  In  the  premature  diminution 
of  the  capacity  for  either  bodily  or  mental 
exertions,  there  may,  in  many  cases,  be  a  well- 
founded  fear  of  ultimate  paralysis,  unless  the 
tendency  to  it  be  in  due  time  counteracted  by 
the  administration  of  appropriate  remedies, 
or  the  relinquishment  of  pernicious  habits.  A 
decline  of  energy  is  often  to  be  regarded  as  a 
commencement  of  palsy.  But  besides  the 
general  failure  of  the  most  important  powers 
of  life,  there  are  many  more  particular  cir- 
i7 


126  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  §C. 

cumstances  which  indicate  the  approach,  if 
not  the  actual  inroad  of  this  formidable  dis- 
ease :  such  as,  transitory  torpor  of  some  limb 
or  muscle ;  dark  spots  floating  or  fixed  before 
the  eye ;  an  occasional  dimness  of  discern- 
ment ;  an  indistinctness  or  confusion  of  me- 
mory.    Fearful  feelings  are  frequently  ex- 
perienced, such  as  deep-seated  pains  in  the 
back  part  of  the  head,  which  give  an  idea  of 
pressure,  or  of  the  firm  and  violent  grasp  of 
an  iron  hand ;  these  symptoms  are  often  at- 
tended by  a  singing  in  the  ears,  an  awkward 
difficulty  of  motion  or  articulation,  a  dimi- 
nished acuteness,  although,  in  some  rare  cases, 
it  is  increased,  in  several  or  all  of  the  senses. 
What  is  particularly  remarkable,  and  by  no 
means  unfrequent  before  a  fatal  seizure,  a 
numbness  of  one  side  will  be  felt  occasionally 
for  a  little  time,  and  then  pass  away.     Dr. 
Beddoes  speaks  of  a  person,  who  once  feel- 
ing in  this  manner  whilst  a  tailor  was  employ- 
ed about  his  person,  remarked  that  "  he  should 
probably  never  want  the  suit  of  cloaths ;  as  he 
distinctly  felt  Death  taking  measure  of  him 
for  his  shroud."    This  man  afterwards  died 
suddenly  of  palsy. 

An  acquaintance  not  merely  with  the  ac- 
tual symptoms  of  a  disorder,  but  with  the  pre- 
vious history  also  of  the  patient,  is  highly 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C.  127 

interesting  and  instructive.  The  latter  know- 
ledge is  often  as  necessary  to  the  prevention, 
as  the  former  is  to  the  cure,  of  a  disease.  It 
is  of  importance  to  know,  and  to  interpret 
rightly,  those  signs  which  portend  the  ap- 
proach of  any  formidable  malady,  in  order 
that  our  fear  may  be  aroused  in  time,  and 
that  we  may  seasonably  oppose  to  the  mor- 
bid tendency,  all  the  means  of  precaution  and 
counteraction  in  our  power.  In  some  of  the 
complaints  which  fall  under  the  denomina- 
tion of  nervous,  this  is  more  particularly  re- 
quired. 

Many  of  the  symptoms  which  indicate  a 
tendency  to  epilepsy,  are  the  same  as  those 
by  which  palsy  is  preceded.  But  there  are 
some  which  more  particularly  threaten  the 
occurrence  of  the  former  disease.  Upon  mi- 
nute enquiry  of  an  epileptic  patient,  it  wiU 
often  appear  that  several  years  before  the 
complete  formation  of  an  epileptic  paroxysm, 
he  had  been  liable  to  a  drowsiness,  which  was 
not  removed  by  actual  sleep ;  to  a  frequently 
occurring  sense  of  intoxication,  without  hav- 
ing taken  any  inebriating  draught  or  drug ;  to 
an  almost  habitual  unsteadiness  upon  the  feet, 
and  sometimes  an  absolute  staggering ;  to  an 
incessant  restlessness  and  propensity  to  loco- 
motion, and  a  continual  disposition  to  change 


138  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  §C. 

his  posture,  or  his  place.  This  mobility  ex- 
tends likewise  to  the  mind  of  the  patient,  so 
that  a  permanent  direction  of  it  towards  one 
object,  is  an  effort  beyond  his  power.  The 
attention  is  always  on  the  wing.  Not  long 
before  an  actual  paroxysm  of  epilepsy,  a  va- 
riety of  uncomfortable  feelings  occur,  such  as 
flashes  of  light  before  the  eyes,  head-ache, 
violent  rushings,  as  it  would  seem,  of  the  blood 
towards  the  head,  dizziness,  dimness  and  con- 
fusion of  vision,  and  a  frequent  sense  of  faint- 
ness,  approaching  to  syncope.  The  patient 
often  complains  also,  whilst  the  malady  is 
pending,  of  being  subject  to  transient  deser- 
tions of  the  intellectual  faculty,  which  seems 
to  leave  him  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  to 
return  in  a  manner  that  he  cannot  account 
for. 

It  is  but  seldom  that  we  meet  with  a  person 
whose  previous  life  affords  all  these  admoni- 
tory hints  of  the  kind  of  danger  which  may 
threaten  his  constitution:  although  it  is  per- 
haps for  want  of  a  scrutiny  sufficiently  strict, 
that  we  do  not  ascertain,  in  almost  every  in- 
stance of  true  epilepsy,  the  previous  occur- 
rence of  most  at  least  of  these  circumstances 
of  awful  presage.  Happy  are  they,  who,  in 
such  cases,  have  discernment  enough  to  decy- 
pher,  and  resolution  practically  to  apply  the 


PALSY,    IDIOCY,    ^C.  129 

characters  of  menace,  before  it  is  too  late  to 
avert  the  evil  v^hich  they  forebode. 

When  the  early  intimations  of  the  progress 
either  of  approaching  epilepsy  or  paralysis 
are  not  adverted  to,  and  the  tendency  of  the 
disease  towards  further  encroachment  is  not, 
by  a  correction  of  diet,  and  general  regulation 
of  the  passions  and  habits,  caref^lly  and  vigor- 
ously resisted,  the  destiny  of  the  unhappy  pa- 
tient is  likely,  in  no  long  time,  to  be  irre- 
trievably fixed  by  one  decisive  blow,  which, 
if  it  spare  for  a  season,  the  principle  of  life, 
will  blast  at  once,  and  obscure  for  ever,  all  the 
energies  and  capacities  of  intellect.  The  pa- 
ralytic survivor  of  his  reason,  presents  an  ob- 
ject truly  pitiable  and  humiliating ;  an  unbu- 
ried  and  respiring  corpse,  a  soul-less  image, 
a  mockery  of  man !  All  is  fled  that  was  valua- 
ble in  the  interior :  it  is  only  the  shell  that  re- 
mains. The  empty  casket  serves  merely  as  a 
memento  of  the  jewel  which  it  once  con- 
tained. 

During  the  year  1809, 1  met  with  two  cases 
of  disease  arising  from  personal  imprudence 
of  a  similar  nature,  but  producing  effects,  in 
some  respects  different,  upon  the  constitution. 

One  of  them  was  an  instance  of  fatuity,  or 
extreme  imbecility  which  had  been  gradually 
induced  by  a  succession  of  epileptic  paroxyms. 


130  PALSY,   IDIOCY,    ^C. 

each  of  which  took  something  away,  until  the 
mind  was  stripped  altogether  of  its  powers 
and  endowments.  At  length,  it  presented  a 
tablet  from  which  was  effaced  nearly  every 
impression  of  thought,  or  character  of  intel- 
lectual existence. 

The  other  case  was  that  of  a  young  man, 
who,  from  an  indiscreet  exposure  during  a 
medicinal  course,  was  suddenly  seized  with 
delirium,  which,  on  account  of  an  hereditary 
bias  in  that  direction,  seemed  likely  to  degen- 
erate into  a  chronic,  and  perhaps  cureless 
aberration,  instead  of  abolition  of  the  mental 
powers.  The  mind,  in  the  latter  instance,  shat- 
tered by  disease,  may  be  compared  to  the 
small  fragments  of  a  broken  mirror,  which  re- 
tain the  faculty  of  reflection,  but  in  which,  al- 
though the  number  of  images  is  increased, 
there  is  no  one  entire  and  perfect  represen- 
tation. 

I  have  known  an  instance  of  epilepsy,  in 
which  the  disease  seemed  to  have  been  at  first 
occasioned  by  blows  upon  the  head  which  a 
boy  had  received  from  his  schoolmaster,  and 
also  from  the  hand  of  an  unnatural  parent. 
He  had  for  some  time  previous  to  my  seeing 
him,  been  in  the  habit,  as  a  baker's  servant, 
of  carrying  to  great  distances  heavy  loads  of 
bread,  the  pressure  of  which  upon  his  head. 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C.  131 

was  calculated  to  aggravate  the  disposition  to 
his  original  disorder.  After,  he  had  in  con- 
sequence of  professional  advice,  been  induced 
to  relinquish  this  to  him  peculiarly  unsuitable 
occupation,  the  fits  occurred  more  rarely,  and 
assumed  a  less  alarming  appearance. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  mark  the  distinction 
between  different  kinds  of  fits ;  hysteria,  epilep- 
sy, palsy,  and  apoplexy  exhibit  often  strong  fea- 
tures of  consanguinity,  and  in  practice  are  sel- 
dom, indeed,  seen  so  distinct  from  each  other, 
as  in  the  definitions  of  nosology.  Some  years 
ago,  I  heard  of  an  impressive  instance  of  the 
fatality  of  impetuous  passion.  A  farmer  was 
intemperately  indignant  against  a  tenant,  for 
some  alteration  which  he  had  made  in  one  of 
his  houses  ;  and  in  the  crisis  of  his  anger  fell 
instantly  dead  at  the  feet  of  his  innocent  of- 
fender. The  violence  of  his  emotion  ex- 
hausted the  powers  of  vitality  without  the  in- 
tervention of  disease.  The  moment  before 
the  sudden  rising  of  his  rage,  he  was  in  the 
most  perfect  health,  and  had  been  so  for  a  long 
time  previous  to  it.  Although  at  already  an 
advanced  age,  his  mode  of  living,  and  modera- 
tion in  every  thing  but  temper,  had  promised 
still  a  considerable  protraction  of  comfortable 
life.     Armstrong  had  such  a  case  as  is  here 


132  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  §C. 

related  in  his  view,  in  the  following  descrip- 
tion : 

"  But  he,  whom  anger  stings,  drops,  if  he  dies 
"  At  once,  and  rushes  apoplectic  down."* 

It  may  be  doubted,  however,  whether  this  fa- 
tal attack  may  be  correctly  considered  as  apo- 
plectic ;  although  that  epithet  is,  in  general, 
but  certainly  with  too  little  discrimination,  ap- 
plied to  almost  every  case  of  sudden  death, 
which  has  not  been  obviously  occasioned  by 
external  violence. 

The  physical  injury  arising  from  inordinate 
passion,  separate  from  any  mischievous  act  to 
which  it  may  lead,  has  not  been  sufficiently 
the  subject  of  medical  attention.  It  operates 
upon  the  vital  functions  in  a  state  of  health, 
so  as  to  produce  disturbance  and  disease  ;  and, 
in  a  state  of  actual  disease,  it  has  an  alarm- 
ing tendency  to  aggravate  every  symptom  of 
disorder,  and  to  increase  the  risk  of  a  fatal 
termination.  Anger,  when  it  is  not  imme- 
diately dangerous,  is  at  least  unwholesome.  It 
is  painful,  without  any  compensation  of  plea- 
sure. A  man  must  be  altogether  unwise,  who 
would  sacrifice  his  health  to  his  enmity,  and 
really  injure  himself,  because  he  conceives 
that  he  has  been  injured  by  another, 

*  *  Art  of  Preserving  Health. 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,    ^C,  133 

Bath  is  a  favourite  place  of  refuge  for  the 
paralytic,  whether  made  so  by  debauchery  or 
any  other  cause  of  premature  decay.  But  the 
fashionable  springs  of  that  crowded  mart  of 
health  are  not  impregnated  with  the  power  of 
restoring  lost  energies,  or  of  bringing  back 
the  tide  of  ebbing  animation.  The  late  Dr. 
Heberden,  a  physician  eminent  for  the  large- 
ness of  his  experience  and  the  correctness  of 
his  observations,  remarks,  that  "  These  waters 
are  neither  in  any  way  detrimental,  nor  of  the 
least  use,  in  palsy." 

My  experience  with  regard  to  the  trial  of 
the  electric  fluid  in  paralytic  seizures  arising 
from  radical  debility  or  decay,  has  in  no  in- 
stance proved  favourable  to  its  use.  Although 
it  may  have  the  effect  of  awakening  dormant 
sensation  for  a  moment,  it  is  not  likely  that 
the  sudden  operation  of  so  fugitive  an  agent 
should  produce  any  important  or  permanent 
impression  upon  a  chronic  and  constitutional 
disorder.  Electricity  is  of  well-ascertained 
advantage  in  some  diseases,  where  the  cure 
is,  in  many  instances,  to  be  effected  only  by  a 
violent  agitation  or  movement  of  the  general 
system  :  but,  with  regard  to  those  morbid  af- 
fections, or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  those 
predispositions  .to  morbid  affection,  which  are 
cither  implanted  before  our  birth,  or  have  by 
18 


134  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C. 

the  influence  of  exterior  situation,  or  inveter- 
ate habits,  been  gradually  introduced  into  our 
frame,  in  addition  to  a  vigilant  and  unceasing 
care  to  avoid  any  circumstances  which  may 
rouse  the  sleeping  propensity  to  disease,  little 
else  is  to  be  prescribed  than  to  adopt  that  re- 
gimen and  method  of  life,  and  occasionally  the 
use  of  those  pharmaceutical  remedies  which 
are  calculated  to  preserve  or  restore  the  gene- 
ral health,  and  by  a  slovv^  and  almost  imper- 
ceptible influence,  to  give  additional  vigor  to 
the  stamina  of  the  constitution. 

In  the  treatment  of  disease,  it  must  appear 
desirable  to  effect  the  cure,  when  it  is  practi- 
cable, by  means  which  act  generally  and  im- 
partially upon  the  body,  rather  than  by  those 
which  operate,  although  not  solely,  yet  more 
immediately,  and  with  peculiar  force,  upon 
the  delicate  nerves  and  fibres  of  the  stomach. 
The  health,  and  of  course  comfort  of  man, 
depend  in  a  principal  degree,  upon  the  due 
vigour  of  his  powers  of  digestion,  which,  by 
the  inordinate  or  unnecessary  use  of  drugs, 
has  in  too  many  instances  been  gradually  im- 
paired, and  at  length  irrecoverably  destroyed. 
This  is  apt  to  be  the  case  more  especially 
with  those  fashionable  hypochondriacs,  who 
are  continually  having  recourse  to  the  doses  of 
pharmacy,  in  order  to  relieve  the  ennid  of  in- 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  §C.  435 

dolence,  or  to  support  the  languor  of  an  ef- 
feminate or  enervated  constitution.  Such  an 
existence  as  theirs  may,  out  of  courtesy,  be 
called  life :  but  it  possesses  none  of  life's  pri- 
vileges or  its  blessings. 

Before  concluding  the  present  essay,  it  may 
be  worth  v^hile  to  notice  several  additional 
cases  of  nervous  or  spasmodic  disorder,  which 
are  somewhat  remarkable,  and  capable,  per- 
haps, of  useful  application. 

A  case  of  chorea  once  fell  under  my  care, 
in  a  girl  of  nine  years  of  age.  Her  limbs, 
during  the  time  that  she  was  awake,  were  in 
constant  motion.  So  far  from  being  able  to 
stand  still,  she  was  scarcely  able  to  stand  at 
all.  Every  muscle  of  her  face  was  strangely 
distorted,  and  her  countenance  wore  an  ex- 
pression of  singular  horror.  She  frequently 
threw  herself  upon  the  floor,  and  beat  her 
head  violently  against  it,  the  effects  of  which 
were  visible  in  the  scars  and  contusions  that 
remained.  She  would,  in  some  of  her  parox- 
ysms, thrust  needles  into  the  flesh  of  her  arms, 
v^thout  appearing  to  receive  pain  from  the 
wounds  thus  inflicted.  She  was  in  the  habit 
of  grasping,  with  an  uncommon  degree  of  ea- 
gerness and  tenacity,  any  object  which  might 
happen  to  be  within  her  reach.  All  these 
symptoms,  when  regarded  in  combination. 


136  PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C. 

seemed  to  indicate  a  superabundance  of  sen- 
sorial power,  which  continually  required  to 
expend  itself  in  muscular  motion  and  volun- 
tary exertion.  It  is  many  years  since  I  heard 
of  this  patient ;  but  it  is  not  improbable  that 
the  reduction  of  excitability,  which  gradually 
takes  place  as  life  advances,  might  at  length 
have  restored  her  to  that  state  of  health, 
which  no  remedies  were  likely,  at  the  time  I 
knew  her,  completely  and  permanently  to  ef-. 
feet, 

Dr.  Parry  observes,  that  "  The  mere  sight 
of  certain  colours  and  liquids,  slight  noises, 
and  various  other  trifling  irritations,  are  highly 
distressing,  and  even  productive  of  convul- 
sions. These  circumstances  are  very  com- 
mon concomitants  of  high  degrees  of  what  is 
called  nervous  aftection.  A  lady  whom  I 
knew,  could  not  bear  to  look  at  any  thing  of  a 
scarlet  colour ;  another  could  bear  the  sight 
of  no  light  colour  whatever;  in  consequence 
of  which  the  papers  and  wainscot  of  her  rooms 
were  all  tinged  with  a  deep  blue  or  green ;  and 
the  light  was  modified  by  green  blinds.  If  also 
at  any  time  I  visited  her  in  white  stockings,  I 
was  always  at  my  entrance  presented  with  a 
black  silk  apron,  with  which  I  was  requested 
to  coyer  these  offensive  garments.  I  have 
seen  a  third  patient  of  this  description,  re-^ 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  ^C.  137 

peatedly  thrown  into  violent  convulsions  by 
the  noise  produced  by  the  falling  of  a  pill-box, 
or  even  a  black  pin,  on  the  floor."* 

The  source  of  convulsive  affections  for  the 
most  'part  consists  in  a  morbid  excess  of  irri- 
tability. Every  nerve,  in  many  of  these  cases, 
seems  to  have  the  exquisite  sensibility  of  the 
optic.  I  have  repeatedly  been  called  upon 
to  prescribe  for  one  lady  who  belongs  to  this 
class  of  patients.  She  is  subject  to  attacks  of 
convulsion,  accompanied  with  the  most  ex- 
cruciating pain  at  the  top  of  her  head.  These 
symptoms  were  the  other  day  suddenly  in- 
duced, by  the  servant  letting  fall  the  tea-board 
at  the  door  of  her  chamber.  She  felt  as  if 
the  brittle  load  had  fallen  upon  her  head.  Her 
brain  appeared  to  sympathize  with  the  frac- 
ture of  the  porcelain.  This  person  had  re- 
cently undergone  the  pains  of  child-birth,  with- 
out experiencing  any  injury,  or  a  more  than 
usual  shock  to  her  feelings.  Such  invalids 
are  often  operated  upon  most  powerfully  by 
the  most  feeble  causes ;  serious  sufferings 
they  can  bear  with  fortitude  and  composure. 
It  is  only  trifles  that  overcome  them. 

A  very  singular  and  anomalous  case  of  ner- 
vous affection  I  shall  narrate  in  the  words  in 

*  Hcc  "  Cases  ofTctaniis  and  limbics  Conlap:iosa,"  by  Dr.  Tarry,  of  Kalb 


138  PALSY,    IDIOCY,    ^C. 

which  it  was  described  by  me  many  years 
ago,  when  I  was  Physician  to  the  Finsbury 
Dispensary. 

"  A  case  equally  remarkable  and  melan- 
choly, has  remained  for  a  very  long  period 
under  the  care  of  the  dispensary.    It  is  that 
of  a  young  woman,  who,  for  many  years  past, 
has  been  confined  to  her  bed  in  a  state  of 
nearly  universal  spasm.    She  lies  rigid  and 
motionless,  with  her  eyes   more  than  half 
closed,  and  every  other  organ  of  sense  al- 
most completely  shut  against  external  impres- 
sion.   The  physician  who  attended  her,  by 
speaking  in  her  ear  as  loud  as  it  was  possi- 
ble for  him  to  do,  succeeded  only  so  far  as  to 
produce  a  motion  of  the  lips,  that  betrayed  an 
ineffectual  endeavour  for  utterance.  It  seems 
to  be  a  case  in  which  there  is  an  absence  of 
actual  sensation,  although  by  some  violently 
exciting  cause,  the  sensibility  may,  at  times, 
be  imperfectly  awakened.    Lying  in  such  a 
state,  with  scarce  any  symptom  of  vitality,  but 
a  feeble  respiration,  she  can  be  regarded  as 
little  more  than  a  breathing  corpse.   It  is  pos- 
sible that  in  this  case,  consciousness  may  still 
exist,  although  it  be  unable  to  appear,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  voluntary  muscles  usually 
employed  to  express  it,  refusing  in  the  pre- 
sent instance  to  discharge  their  accustomed 


PALSY,  IDIOCY,  §C.  13D 

office.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  this 
is  not  actually  the  fact.  Nothing  is  more  ter- 
rific to  the  imagination  than  the  idea  of  being 
buried  alive :  and  what  mode  of  being  buried 
alive,  can  be  conceived  more  truly  horrible, 
than  for  the  soul  to  be  entombed  in  the  bo- 
dy ?"* 

*  See  Monthly  Magazine,  Medical  Report,  for  June,  1800. 


ESSAY  XVIIL 


THE  HEREDITARY  NATURE   OF  MADNESS. 

"  To  be  well  born,"  is  a  circumstance  of 
real  importance,  but  not  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  expression  is  usually  employed.  The 
most  substantial  privileges  of  birth  are  not 
those  which  are  confined  to  the  descendants 
of  noble  ancestors. 

The  heir  of  a  sound  constitution  has  no 
right  to  regret  the  absence  of  any  other  patri- 
mony. A  man  who  has  derived  from  the  im- 
mediate authors  of  his  being,  vigorous  and 
untainted  stamina  of  mind  as  well  as  of  body, 
enters  upon  the  world  with  a  sufficient  foun- 
dation and  ample  materials  for  happiness. 
Very  different  is  it  with  the  progeny  of  those 
who  are  constitutionally  diseased  in  any  way, 
but  more  especially  with  the  progeny  of  per- 
sons who  are  radically  morbid  in  intellect.  No 
wealth,  which  it  is  in  the  power  of  such  pa- 
rents to  bequeath,  can  compensate  the  proba- 
bihty  of  evil  which  they  entail  upon  the  crea- 
19 


143  MADNESS  HEREDITARY. 

tures  and  the  victims  of  their  selfish  indul- 
gence or  their  criminal  indiscretion. 

Nothing  can  be  more  obvious,  than  that  one 
who  is  aware  of  a  decided  bias  in  his  own 
person  towards  mental  derangement,  ought 
to  shun  the  chance  of  extending  and  of  per- 
petuating, without  any  assignable  limit,  the 
ravages  of  so  dreadful  a  calamity.  No  rites, 
however  holy,  can,  under  such  circumstances, 
consecrate  the  conjugal  union.  In  a  case  like 
this,  marriage  itself  is  a  transgression  of  mo- 
rality. A  man  who  is  so  situated,  in  incurring 
the  risk  of  becoming  a  parent,  involves  him- 
self in  a  crime,  which  may  not  improbably 
project  its  lengthened  shadow,  a  shadow  too, 
which  widens  in  proportion  as  it  advances, 
over  the  intellect  and  the  happiness  of  an  in- 
definite succession  of  beings. 

The  ruffian  who  fires  at  the  intended  ob- 
ject of  his  plunder,  takes  away  the  life  of  him 
only  at  whom  his  aim  is  levelled.  The  bullet 
which  penetrates  the  heart  of  the  unfortunate 
victim,  does  in  general  no  farther  mischief. 
But  he,  who  inflicts  upon  a  single  individual, 
the  worse  than  deadly  wound  of  insanity, 
knows  not  the  numbers  to  which  its  venom 
may  be  communicated.  He  poisons  a  pubUc 
stream  out  of  which  multitudes  may  drink. 


MADNESS  HEREDITARY.  143 

he  is  the  enemy,  not  of  one  man,  but  of  man-= 
kind. 

In  cases  of  disease  which  are  more  strictly 
corporeal,  the  risk  as  well  as  evil  of  engen- 
dering them  is  smaller,  not  only  because  they 
are  less  serious  in  their  character  and  conse- 
quences than  mental  maladies,  but  also,  be- 
cause they  are  more  within  the  scope  of  ma- 
nagement and  possible  counteraction. 

Scrophula,  for  instance,  although  by  the  vul- 
gar it  has  been  emphatically  denominated  "  the 
Evil,"  is  less  deserving  of  so  fearful  a  title, 
than  that  complaint,  which,  not  altogether 
without  reason,  has  received  the  appellation 
of  the  "  English  Malady.';  It  should  likewise 
be  considered,  that  scrophula  might,  perhaps, 
in  a  majority  of  instances,  be  corrected  in 
early  life,  by  a  suitable  education  of  the  mus- 
cular fibre,  upon  the  chronic  relaxation  of 
which,  affections  of  this  nature  may  be  sup- 
posed, in  a  great  measure,  to  depend.  Gout, 
likewise,  may  be  considered  as  an  hereditary 
complaint.  But  by  temperance,  exercise,  and 
other  means  which  are  completely  within  our 
power,  we  may  avert  an  impending  attack, 
and  even  counteract,  in  some  measure,  if  not 
altogether  extirpate,  an  original  tendency  to 
this  disease.  But  an  hereditary  propensity  to 
inflammation  and  consequent  distortion  of  the 


144!  MADNESS  HEREDITARY. 

mental  faculties,  will  not  yield,  with  equal 
readiness  and  certainty,  to  any  skill  in  medi- 
cine, or  discretion  in  diet.  We  may  shun  or 
protect  ourselves  against  those  vicissitudes  of 
external  temperature  which  develope  the  se- 
cret tendency  to  pulmonary  complaints.  But, 
we  cannot  with  similar  facility  or  success,  at- 
tempt to  elude  the  noxious  influence  of  those 
vicissitudes  of  life,  which  are  apt  to  awaken 
the  dormant  energies  of  madness.  There  are 
crushes  of  calamity  which  at  once  overwhelm, 
with  an  irresistible  force,  the  sturdiest  and 
most  firmly  established  intellect.  Such,  how- 
ever, are  comparatively  of  rare  occurrence. 
But  who  can  uniformly  escape  those  abrupt 
interruptions,  or  sudden  turnings  of  fortune, 
by  which  a  reason  that  is  loosely  seated  may 
be  suddenly  displaced;  or  those  lighter  blows 
of  affliction  which  are  sufficient  to  overpower 
the  feebleness  of  a  tottering  understanding  ? 

When,  as  it  sometimes  happens,  an  heredi- 
tary disposition  to  this  disease  appears  to  sleep 
through  one  generation,  it  will  often  be  found 
to  awaken  in  the  next,  with  even  aggravated 
horrors.  Should  the  child  of  a  maniac  escape 
his  father's  malady,  the  chance  is  small  that 
the  grand-child  will  be  equally  fortunate.  The 
continued  stream  of  insanity,  although  it  oc- 
casionally conceal  itself  for  a  timcj  soon  again 


MADNESS  HEREDITARY.  145 

emerges  to  our  view.  Madness,  like  the  elec- 
tric fluid,  runs  through  the  whole  length  of 
the  chain,  although  we  may  not  observe  it  at 
every  link. 

After  all,  I  would  be  understood  to  inculcate, 
that  strictly  speaking,  it  is  the  tendency  only  to 
insanity  that  is  inherited ;  or,  in  other  words,  a 
greater  facility  than  ordinary,  to  be  acted  up- 
on by  those  external  circumstances  that  are 
calculated  to  produce  the  disease. 

It  might  not,  perhaps,  transgress  the  exact- 
ness of  truth  to  assert,  that  the  external  cir- 
cumstances and  accidents  of  a  man's  Ufe,  and, 
what  is  more  important,  his  physical  and  mo- 
ral habits  are  calculated  to  have  a  greater  effi- 
cacy than  any  seeds  of  disorder  that  may  lie 
concealed  in  his  original  organization.  That 
therefore  one  who,  under  a  fear  of  radical 
predisposition,  should,  from  early  youth, 
adopt  a  counteracting  regimen,  as  it  relates 
both  to  the  body  and  the  mind,  would  often 
be  in  less  danger  of  being  affected  by  intellec- 
tual malady,  than  another,  who,  confiding  in 
a  constitutional  immunity  from  this  form  of 
disease,  should  continually  and  carelessly  ex- 
pose himself  to  its  predisposing  and  exciting 
causes. 


ESSAY  XIX. 


ON  OLD  AGE. 


CoRNARo,  in  his  celebrated  little  treatise  ou 
health  and  long  life,  introduces  one  of  his  pa- 
ragraphs with  this  absurdity:  "since  nothing 
is  more  advantageous  to  man  upon  earth,  than 
to  live  long," 

By  a  person  of  an  unimpaired  reason,  longe- 
vity can  never  be  regarded  as  an  object  of  am- 
bition or  desire.  The  v^ick  of  life  emits,  in 
proportion  as  it  lengthens,  a  more  dim  and 
languid  flame.  Man,  in  completing  the  orbit 
of  his  terrestrial  existence,  returns  to  that 
point  of  imbecility  from  which  he  originally 
set  out.  But,  between  his  first  and  second 
childhood,  there  is  a  difference  no  less  impor- 
tant, than  between  the  morning  and  the  even- 
ing twilight.  The  equivocal  obscurity  of  the 
former,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  hope,  may  be 
succeeded  by  a  clear  and  even  a  brilliant  day. 
But  of  the  latter,  the  faint  and  imperfect  sha- 
dows must  be  expected  to  grow  gradually 


148  OLD  AGE. 

deeper  and  larger,  until  they  are  lost  in  the 
complete  darkness  of  night. 

During  the  periods  of  youth  and  maturity, 
a  man  has  a  regular  revenue  of  health  and  vi- 
gour, which  he  is  at  liberty  to  consume  with- 
out infringing  upon  the  capital  of  his  consti- 
tution. But  in  old  age  he  is  reduced  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  living  upon  his  principal ;  in  conse- 
quence, every  day  his  stock  of  vitahty  grows 
sensibly  loss.  His  power  of  resistance  against 
the  agents  of  further  decay,  diminishes  in  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  of  decay  which  has  al- 
ready taken  place.  The  pressure  of  years  often 
seems  to  produce  a  curvature  even  of  the  un- 
derstanding, which,  when  it  has  been  bent 
from  this  cause,  cannot,  any  more  than  the 
body,  restore  itself  to  the  upright  attitude. 

An  old  man  is  no  longer  susceptible  of  new 
ideas.  His  mind  lives  altogether  upon  the  past. 
Hence,  in  a  great  measure,  arises  the  ex- 
treme difficulty,  amounting,  in  many  instances, 
to  an  impossibility,  of  removing  mental  mala- 
dy when  it  occurs  at  a  very  advanced  period 
of  life.  In  the  instance  of  an  aged  melancho- 
lic, we  might  as  well  almost  attempt  to 
change  the  complexion  of  his  grey  hairs,  as 
to  brighten  the  dark  hues  of  his  imagination. 
Grief  hangs  loosely  about  early  youth :  but,  in 
more  advanced  life,  it  often  adheres  so  close- 


OLB    AGE,  149 

ly  as  to  become  almost  a  part  of  the  moral  or- 
ganization. In  the  one  case,  sorrow  resembles 
the  dress  of  civilized  life,  which  is  laid  aside 
without  much  difficulty ;  in  the  other,  it  may 
be  compared  to  the  scars  with  which  savage 
nations  are  used  to  adorn  themselves,  and 
which  are  so  deeply  engraven  in  the  substance 
of  the  body,  as  to  defy  any  attempt  at  oblite- 
ration. A  radical  cure  has  scarcely  ever  been 
effected,  in  the  instance  of  a  hoary-headed 
maniac.  His  mind,  when  shattered,  is  like 
broken  porcelain,  the  fragments  of  which 
may  be  so  carefully  put  together,  as  to  give  it 
the  appearance  of  being  entire  ;  but  which  is 
in  danger  of  falling  to  pieces  again  upon  the 
shghtest  touch,  or  upon  even  a  more  than  or- 
dinary vibration  of  the  surrounding  atmos- 
phere. The  disorder  of  the  faculties,  in  such 
a  case,  is  not  likely  to  terminate  except  in 
their  complete  extinction.  The  agitation  of 
mind  can  be  expected  to  subside  only  in  the 
calm  of  death,  or  in  the  inoffensive  quiet  of 
idiocy  or  idea-less  superannuation. 


ARTIFICIAL    OR    PREMATURE    OLD    AGE. 

There  are  few  men  that  can  be  strictly  said 
to  die  a  natural  death.     And  there  are  fewer 
20 


150  OLD    AGE. 

still  that  allow  themselves  to  live  to  a  natural 
old  age.  An  unseasonable  senility  grows  out 
of  the  hot  bed  of  juvenile  licentiousness. 
Spendthrifts  of  constitution,  by  an  inconsider- 
ate waste  of  their  hereditary  fund  of  vitality, 
bring  upon  themselves  an  early  incompeten- 
cy and  want  of  healthy  relish  for  the  plea- 
sures as  well  as  for  the  business  of  the  world. 
It  is  thus  that  man  decays  before  he  has  had 
time  to  ripen.  The  foundation  is  undermined, 
before  the  superstructure  is  nearly  finished. 
The  helplessness  of  childhood  is,  by  means  of 
excesses,  brought  almost  into  contact  with  the 
imbecility  of  age  ;  so  as  to  leave  scarcely  any 
interval  for  that  period  of  manly  maturity,  that 
combination  of  intellectual  with  physical  vigour, 
which  principally  constitutes  the  value,  and 
alone  exhibits  the  dignity  of  human  nature. 
In  such  an  existence  there  is  no  noon.  The 
sun  of  life,  instead  of  completing  the  convex- 
ity of  its  course,  soon  after  the  first  shew  of 
its  light,  relapses  beneath  the  verge  of  the 
horizon. 

Veterans  in  vice  often  appear  to  become 
virtuous,  in  consequence  of  having  lost  the  ca- 
pacity for  licentious  indulgence.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  not  unfrequently  happens,  that,  "  when 
the  bodily  organs  have  lost  their  freshness,  the 
imagination  its  radiant  hues,  and  the  nerves 


OLD    AGE,  151 

their  once  exquisite  faculty  of  thrilling  with 
delight  through  all  their  filaments  ;"  the  dull 
debauchee,  the  vapid  voluptuary,  still  persists, 
from  the  inveteracy  of  custom,  in  a  course 
which  he  has  long  ceased  to  pursue  from  the 
impetuosity  of  instinct.  Habits  are  more  invin- 
cible than  passions.  Nothing  can  be  more 
truly  wretched  as  well  as  contemptible,  than 
a  state  in  which  impotency  is  still  instigated 
by  the  torment  of  desire,  and  where,  although 
the  fire  of  masculine  emotion  be  extinct,  even 
the  ashes  of  the  constitution  continue  to  glow 
with  unhallowed  and  ineffectual  heat. 


ESSAY  XX. 


LUNATIC    ASYLUMS. 


"  I  am  not  mad !  I  have  been  imprisoned  for  mad — scourged  for  mad 
— t)anished  for  mad : — ^but  mad  I  am  not."  G^iy  Mannenng. 


The  mind  of  a  man  maybe  bruised  or  broken 
as  well  as  any  limb  of  his  body  :  and  the  in- 
jury, when  it  occurs,  is  not  so  easy  of  repara- 
tion. A  morbidly  tumid  fancy  cannot,  like 
many  other  swellings,  be  made  speedily  to 
subside.  An  intellect  out  of  joint  will  not  al- 
low of  being  set  with  the  same  facility  as  a 
dislocated  bone  :  nor  can  the  deep  and  often 
hidden  ulcerations  which  arise  from  mental 
distemper  or  disorganization,  be  healed  with 
the  same  readinesss  or  certainty  as  those  more 
palpable  sores  which  take  place  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  body.  On  this  account  it  is,  that 
so  close  and  vigilant  an  observation  is  required 
in  watching  the   incessantly  varying  move- 


154  LUNATIC    ASYLUMS. 

ments,  and  in  inspecting  the  too  exquisitely 
delicate  texture  of  a  disordered  and  highly- 
wrought  imagination. 

One  thing  at  least  is  certain,  that,  in  the 
management  of  such  maladies,  tenderness  is 
better  than  torture,  kindness  more  effectual 
than  constraint.  Blows,  and  the  straight- 
waistcoat,  are  often,  it  is  to  be  feared,  too 
hastily  employed.  It  takes  less  trouble  to 
fetter  by  means  of  cords,  than  by  the  assidui- 
ties of  sympathy  or  affection.  Nothing  has 
a  more  favourable  and  controuling  influence 
over  one  who  is  disposed  to,  or  actually  af- 
fected with,  melancholy,  or  mania,  than  an 
exhibition  of  friendship  or  philanthropy ;  ex- 
cepting indeed  in  such  cases,  and  in  that  state 
of  the  disease,  in  which  the  mind  has  been 
hardened  and  almost  brutalized,  by  having  al- 
ready been  the  subject  of  coarse  and  humilia- 
ting treatment.  Where  a  constitutional  incli- 
nation towards  insanity  exists,  there  is  in  gen- 
eral to  be  observed  a  more  than  ordinary  sus- 
ceptibility of  resentment  at  any  act  that  offers 
itself  in  the  shape  of  an  injury  or  an  insult. 

Hence  it  will  not  appear  surprising,  that  as 
soon  as  an  unfortunate  victim  has  been  en- 
closed within  the  awful  barriers  of  either  the 
public,  or  the  minor  and  more   clandestine 


LUNATIC  ASYLUMS.  155 

Bethlems,  the  destiny  of  his  reason  should, 
in  a  large  proportion  of  cases,  be  irretrieva- 
bly fixed.  The  idea  that  he  is  supposed  to  be 
insane,  is  almost  of  itself  sufficient  to  make 
him  so :  and  when  such  a  mode  of  manage- 
ment is  used  with  men,  as  ought  not  to  be,  al- 
though it  too  generally  is,  applied  even  to 
brutes,  can  we  wonder  if  it  should  often,  in  a 
person  of  more  than  ordinary  irritability,  pro- 
duce, or  at  any  rate,  accelerate  the  last  and 
incurable  form  of  that  disease,  to  which  at 
first  perhaps  there  was  only  a  delusive  sem- 
blance, or  merely  an  incipient  approxima- 
tion ? 

Tasso,  the  celebrated  poet,  was  once  insti- 
gated by  the  violence  of  an  amorous  impulse, 
to  embrace  a  beautiful  woman  in  the  presence 
of  her  brother,  who,  happening  to  be  a  man 
of  rank  and  power,  punished  this  poetic  li- 
cense by  locking  up  the  offender  in  a  recep- 
tacle for  lunatics.  It  is  said  that  by  this  con- 
finement he  was  made  mad,  who  was  before 
only  too  impetuous  or  indiscreet. 

That  a  wretched  being,  who  has  been  for 
some  time  confined  in  a  receptacle  for  luna- 
tics, is  actually  insane,  can  no  more  prove  that 
he  was  so,  when  he  first  entered  it,  than  a 
person's  being  affected  with  fever  in  the  black 


156  LUNATIC  ASYLUMS. 

hole  of  Calcutta,  is  an  evidence  of  his  having 
previously  laboured  under  febrile  infection. 

Bakewell,  the  late  celebrated  agriculturist, 
was  accustomed  to  conquer  the  insubordi- 
nation, or  any  vicious  irregularity  of  his  horses, 
not  by  the  ordinary  routine  of  whipping  and 
spurring,  but  by  the  milder  and  more  effec- 
tual method  of  kindness  and  caresses.  And  it 
is  worthy  of  being  remembered  and  practi- 
cally applied,  that,  although  the  human  has 
higher  faculties  than  other  animals,  they  have 
still  many  sympathies  in  common.  There  are 
certain  laws  and  feelings  which  regulate  and 
govern  alike  every  class  and  order  of  anima- 
ted existence. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  salutary  influence  over 
the  wanderings  of  a  maniac,  we  must  first  se- 
cure his  confidence.  This  cannot  be  done, 
without  behaving  towards  him  with  a  delicacy 
due  to  his  unfortunate  state,  which  for  the  most 
part  ought  to  be  regarded  not  as  an  abolition, 
but  as  a  suspension  merely  of  the  rational  fa- 
culties. Lord  Chesterfield  speaks,  in  one  of 
his  humourous  essays,  of  a  lady  whose  repu- 
tation was  not  lost,  but  was  only  mislaid.  In 
like  manner,  instead  of  saying  of  a  man,  that 
he  has  lost  his  senses,  we  should  in  many  in- 
stances more  correctly  perhaps  say,  that  they 


CiUNATIC   ASYLUMS,  ±57 

were  mislaid.  Derangement  is  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  destruction ;  we  must  not  mis- 
take a  cloud  for  night,  or  fancy,  because  the 
sun  of  reason  is  obscured,  that  it  will  never 
again  enliven  or  illuminate  with  its  beams. 
There  is  ground  to  apprehend  that  fugitive 
folly  is  too  often  converted  into  a  fixed  and 
settled  phrenzy ;  a  transient  guest  into  an  ir- 
removable tenant  of  the  mind ;  an  occasional 
and  accidental  aberration  of  intellect,  into  a 
confirmed  and  inveterate  habit  of  dereliction, 
by  a  premature  and  too  precipitate  adoption  of 
measures  and  methods  of  management,  which 
sometimes,  indeed,  are  necessary,  but  which 
are  so  only  in  cases  of  extreme  and  ultimate 
desperation. 

A  heavy  responsibility  presses  upon  those 
who  preside  or  officiate  in  the  asylums  of  lu- 
nacy. Little  is  it  known  how  much  injustice 
is  committed,  and  how  much  useless  and  wan- 
tonly inflicted  misery  is  endured  in  those  in- 
firmaries for  disordered,  or  rather  cemeteries 
for  deceased  intellect.  Instead  of  trampling 
upon,  we  ought  to  cherish,  and  by  the  most 
delicate  and  anxious  care,  strive  to  nurse  into 
a  clearer  and  brighter  flame  the  still  glim- 
mering embers  of  a  nearly-extinguished 
mind. 

2i 


158  LUNATIC  ASYLUMS. 

It  is  by  no  means  the  object  of  these  re- 
marks to  depreciate  the  value  of  institutions 
which,  under  a  judicious  and  merciful  super- 
intendance,  might  be  made  essentially  condu- 
cive to  the  protection  of  lunatics  themselves, 
as  well  as  to  that  of  others,  who  would  else 
be  continually  exposed  to  their  violence  and 
caprice,  But  it  is  to  be  feared,  that  many  have 
been  condemned  to  a  state  of  insulation  from 
all  rational  and  sympathising  intercourse,  be- 
fore the  necessity  has  occurred  for  so  severe 
a  lot.  Diseased  members  have  been  amputa- 
ted from  the  trunk  of  society,  before  they  have 
become  so  incurable  or  unsound  as  absolutely 
to  require  separation.  Many  of  the  depots 
for  the  captivity  of  intellectual  invalids  may 
be  regarded  only  as  nurseries  for,  and  manu- 
factories of,  madness ;  magazines  or  reservoirs 
of  lunacy,  from  which  is  issued,  from  time  to 
time,  a  sufficient  supply  for  perpetuating  and 
extending  this  formidable  disease, — a  disease 
which  is  not  to  be  remedied  by  stripes  or 
strait- waistcoats,  by  imprisonment  or  impove- 
rishment, but  by  an  unwearied  tenderness, 
and  by  an  unceasing  and  anxious  superintend- 
ance. 

The  grand  council  of  the  country  ought  to 
be  aroused  to  a  critical  and  inquisitorial  scru- 


LUNATIC   ASYLUMS.  159 

tiny  into  the  arcana  of  our  medical  prisons, 
into  our  slaughter-houses  for  the  destruction 
and  mutilation  of  the  human  mind.* 


*  vide  Monthly  Magazine.     Medical  Report  for  February,  1808. 

Not  only  the  last  paragraph,  but  nearly  every  sentence  of  this  Essay, 
is  a  repetition  of  what  I  had  published,  many  years  ago,  in  tlie  above 
periodical  work.  Those  statements  and  observations  with  regard  to 
mad-houses,  which  were  then  reprobated  either  as  altogether  ground- 
less, or  as  unpardonably  exaggerated,  have  since  been  remarkably  con- 
firmed to  the  fullest  extent,  by  the  parUamentary  reports  Vv'hich  have 
lately  appeared  on  the  same  subject,  and  which  have  so  deeply  inte- 
rested every  humane  and  intelhgent  individual  in  the  empire. 


ESSAY  XXI. 


THE  IMPORTANCE   OF  COUNTERACTING    THE    TEN- 
DENCY  TO   MENTAL   DISEASE. 


"  Be  toutes  choses  les  naissances  sont  foibles  et  tendres.     Pourtant 

faut-il  avoir  les  yeux  ouverts  aux  Gommencements,  car  comma  alors  en 

sa  petitesse  on  ne  decouvre  pas  le  danger, — quand  il  est  accru,  on  ne'en 

decouvre  plus  de  vemede." 

JHo7itai^ne, 


The  commencement  of  morbid  irritation  is 
seldom  sufficiently  watched  and  corrected. 
Almost  every  nervous  affection  may  be  con- 
sidered as  an  approach  to  insanity.  The  com- 
ing on  of  melancholy,  like  that  of  the  evening 
darkness,  is  scarcely  perceptible  in  its  en- 
croachments. The  gradual  establishment  of 
intellectual  hallucination  is  traced  with  admi- 
rable fidelity  in  the  following  delineation  of 
Dr.  Johnson. 

"  Some  particular  train  of  ideas  fixes  upon 
the  mind.  All  other  intellectual  gratifications 
are  rejected.  The  mind,  in  weariness  or  lei- 
sure, recurs  constantly  to  the  favourite  con- 
ception ;  and  feasts  on  the  luscious  falsehood, 


163  TENDENCY  TO  INSANITY. 

whenever  it  is  offended  with  the  bitterness  of 
truth.  By  degrees,  the  reign  of  fancy  is  con- 
firmed. She  grows  first  imperious,  and  in  time 
despotic.  These  fictions  begin  to  operate  as 
realities.  False  opinions  fasten  upon  the  mind: 
and  life  passes  in  dreams  of  rapture  or  of  an- 
guish."* 

There  are  floating  atoms  or  minute  em- 
bryos of  insanity  which  cannot  be  discerned 
by  the  naked  or  uneducated  eye.  One  of  the 
most  important  requisites  in  the  character  of 
a  Physician,  is  the  capacity  of  detecting  the 
earliest  rudiments,  and  the  scarcely-formed 
filaments  of  disease ;  so  that  by  timely  care 
and  well-adapted  means,  he  may  prevent  them 
from  growing  and  collecting  into  a  more  pal- 
pable and  substantial  form. 

I  well  recollect  an  interesting  case  of  a  per- 
son whose  mind  had  received  the  highest  cul- 
ture, and  who  was  endowed  with  an  exquisite 
sensibility.  The  disease  was,  in  his  instance, 
of  gradual,  almost  of  imperceptible  growth. 
The  shadow  of  melancholy  slowly  advanced 
until  it  had  produced  a  total  echpse  of  the  un- 
derstanding. 

The  importance  cannot  be  too  deeply  im- 
pressed, of  counteracting  a  tendency  to  this 

*  Rasselas. 


TENDENCY  TO  INSANITY.  163 

disease.  When  it  is  fully  formed  and  estab- 
lished by  habit,  our  efforts  will  seldom  prove 
of  any  avail.  We  might  in  that  case  as  well 
almost  attempt,  by  the  spell  of  a  professional 
recipe,  to  break  asunder  the  chain  which  binds 
the  body  of  a  maniac  to  the  floor,  as  the  strong 
concatenation  of  thought  which  is  still  more 
closely  riveted  around  his  mind.  In  a  de- 
rangement of  the  intellectual  faculties,  the 
first  moment  of  its  appearance  is  often  the 
only  one  at  which  it  may  be  combated  with 
any  certainty  of  success.  The  smallest  speck 
on  the  edge  of  the  horizon  ought  to  be  re- 
garded with  awe,  as  portending,  if  not  speed- 
ily dispersed,  an  universal  and  impenetrable 
gloom. 

It  is  not  in  the  adult  and  fully-established 
form  of  insanity,  that  we  can  best  learn  its 
origin,  or  become  tlioroughly  acquainted  with 
its  character.  A  mad-house  is,  on  this  account, 
an  insufficient  school  for  acquiring  an  intimate 
and  correct  knowledge  of  madness.  No  man, 
by  studying  merely  a  hortus  siccus,  would 
think  of  making  himself  a  botanist.  In  order 
to  lay  any  claim  to  that  title,  he  must  con- 
ten»plate  plants,  not  as  they  are  pinned  down 
in  a  port-foho,  but  at  the  period  when  they 
first  emerge  from  the  soil,  and  at  every  suc- 
cessive stage  of  their  history  and  growth. 


164  LUCID  tNTERVALS. 


LUCID  INTERVALS. 


It  is  astonishing  with  what  management 
and  sagacity  a  maniac,  when  he  is  impelled 
by  a  sufficient  motive,  can  keep  the  secret  of 
his  madness.  I  was  once  very  nearly  imposed 
upon  by  a  patient  of  this  description,  who,  by 
means  of  extraordinary  art  and  exertion,  had 
effected  his  escape  over  the  barriers  of  con- 
finement, and,  in  order  to  elude  pursuit,  soli- 
cited professional  evidence  in  favour  of  his 
sanity.  A  particular  train  of  thought,  which 
for  a  time  lay  silent  and  secret  within  the  re- 
cesses of  his  mind,  all  at  once,  by  an  accidental 
touch  kindled  into  an  unexpected  and  terrible 
explosion. 

Lucid  intervals  are  subjects  deserving  of 
the  very  particular  study  of  the  legal,  as  well 
as  the  medical  profession.  There  are,  in  fact, 
few  cases  of  mania,  or  melancholy,  where  the 
light  of  reason  does  not  now  and  then  shine 
between  the  clouds.  In  fevers  of  the  mind, 
as  well  as  those  of  the  body,  there  occur  fre- 
quent intermissions.  But  the  mere  interrup- 
tion of  a  disorder  is  not  to  be  mistaken  for  its 
cure,  or  its  ultimate  conclusion.  Little  stress 
ought  to  be  laid  upon  those  occasional  and  un- 
certain disentanglements  of  intellect,  in  which 


LUCID  INTERVALS.  165 

the  patient  is  for  a  time  only  extricated  from 
the  labyrinth  of  his  morbid  hallucinations. 
Madmen  may  shew,  at  starts,  more  sense  than 
ordinary  men.  There  is  perhaps  as  much  ge- 
nius confined,  as  at  large  ;  and  he  who  should 
court  corruscations  of  talent,  might  be  as  like- 
ly to  meet  with  them  in  a  receptacle  for  lu- 
natics, as  in  almost  any  other  theatre  of  intel- 
lectual exhibition.  But  the  flashes  of  wit  be- 
tray too  often  the  ruins  of  wisdom:  and  the 
mind  which  is  conspicuous  for  the  brilliancy, 
will  frequently  be  found  deficieiit  in  the  stea- 
diness, of  its  lustre. 


32 


ESSAY  XXIi, 


BLEEDING^ 


Pneumonia,  or  pleurisy,  is  one  of  the 
few  complaints  in  which  an  early  and  often  a 
repeated  application  of  the  lancet  is  in  gene- 
ral of  the  most  urgent  and  indispensable  ne- 
cessity. If  blood-letting  be  had  recourse  to 
at  a  proper  period,  and  to  a  sufficient  extent, 
which  of  course  must  vary  according  to  the 
symptoms  of  the  disease,  and  the  constitu- 
tional habit  of  the  patient,  it  mil  seldom  fail, 
without  much  other  aid,  to  remove  a  disease 
that  otherwise  might,  and  not  unfrequently 
does,  in  a  very  short  time,  terminate  in  death. 
But  it  is  a  matter  of  serious  and  essential  im- 
portance, to  discriminate  betv/een  genuine 
pleurisy  and  those  pains,  difficulty  of  breath- 
ing, and  other  associated  symptoms,  which 
arise,  not  from  inflamation  or  too  high  excite- 
ment, but  merely  from  nervous  weakness  and 
depression.     In  the  latter  case,  vensesection 


168  BLEEDING. 

is  as  injurious  to  health,  as  in  the  former  it  is 
necessary  to  the  preservation  of  life.  To 
draw  blood  from  a  nervous  patient,  is,  in  many 
instances,  like  loosening  the  chords  of  a  mu- 
sical instrument,  w^hose  tones  are  already  de- 
fective from  want  of  sufficient  tension. 

Pain  in  any  part  is  too  generally  considered 
as  an  evidence  of  inflammation  ;  whereas  it 
more  frequently  arises  from  the  difficulty  with 
which  a  debilitated  or  obstructed  organ  per- 
forms its  accustomed  and  salutary  office. 

In  modern  times,  inflammatory  fever,  or  a 
habit  indicating  an  excess  of  general  excite- 
ment, very  rarely  indeed  occurs.  I  have  never 
met  ^vith  an  instance  of  proper  fever  which 
appeared  to  me  to  justify  the  opening  of  a 
vein.*  Local  inflammation  is  so  far  from  opera- 
ting invariably  as  an  argument  for,  may  con- 
stitute, in  some  instances,  even  an  objection 
against  the  application  of  the  lancet.     Local 

*  It  would  reconcile  many  of  the  apparent  oppositions  and  incongrvii- 
ties  which  occur  in  the  works  of  those  who  have  written  upon  the  dis- 
eases of  the  human  frame  at  different  stages  of  its  history,  to  consider, 
that  man,  the  subject  upon  which  they  write,  has,  during  the  interve- 
ning periods,  undergone  considerable  changes  in  his  physical  as  well  as 
in  his  moral  constitution.  Sydenham  was  eminently  judicious  and  suc- 
cessful in  his  time.  But  the  physician,  who,  in  this  compai-atively  ener- 
vated and  puny  age,  was,  in  the  exercise  of  his  profession,  to  imitate,  with- 
out modification  or  reserve,  the  bold  and  energetic  style  of  practice 
adopted  by  that  great  master  of  his  art,  would  not  be  unlikely,  by  the 
empirical  raslmess  of  his  conduct,  to  injure,  if  not  destroy,  in  almost  every 
instance  in  which  he  ventured  to  prescribe. 


I 


BLEEDING.  169 

inflammation  is  often  only  a  partial  accumula- 
tion of  that  excitement  which  ought  to  be 
equally  distributed  through  the  whole  frame. 
The  frame  in  general  is,  of  course,  likely  in 
such  cases  to  be  proportionably  impoverished, 
and  will  of  consequence,  be  rendered  less 
able  to  bear  any  artificial  or  extraordinary 
evacuation. 

Those  haemorrhages  which  are  so  common 
to  the  nervous,  more  especially  of  the  other 
sex,  rarely  indicate  the  propriety  of  artificial 
blood-letting,  although  in  such  cases,  it  is  often 
employed.  Haemorrhage  may  be  occasioned 
either  by  too  copious  a  production  of  the  vital 
fluid ;  by  some  partial  accumulation  of  it ;  or 
by  the  laxity  or  tenuity  of  the  vessels  which 
contain  it.  In  the  present  condition  of  the 
human  frame,  enfeebled  as  it  is,  by  every  spe- 
cies of  luxury  and  effeminacy,  this,  as  well  as 
most  other  modes  of  physical  derangement, 
originate,  in  a  majority  of  cases,  from  a  de- 
ficiency of  vigour.  Hsemorrhage  seldom, 
comparatively,  arises  from  a  more  than  ordi- 
nary mass  or  impetus  of  blood  ;  but  in  gene- 
ral from  a  want  of  that  contractile  power  in 
the  artery  which  is  necessary  to  resist  its  ten- 
dency to  immoderate  effusion. 

True  pleurisy,  as  I  have  already  stated,  in 
most  cases,  imperiously  demands  immediate 


170  BLEEDING. 

vensesection.  But  with  true  pleurisy  are  apt 
to  be  confounded  those  pulmonary  or  asth- 
matic affections,  which,  for  the  most  part,  com- 
mence their  attacks  in  advanced  life,  and 
which  are  not  attended  with  any  active  in- 
flammation, but  arise  merely  from  the  worn- 
out  condition  of  superannuated  lungs.  The 
difficulty  of  breathing,  pain,  and  oppressed 
circulation,  will  seldom,  in  such  instances, 
justify  the  subtraction  of  blood.  We  cannot 
be  too  fearful  and  tender  in  deducting  from 
an  old  man  any  portion,  however  small,  of 
that  fluid,  the  remaining  quantity  of  which  is 
barely  sufficient  to  support  the  vigour,  or  even 
the  vitality  of  his  enfeebled  and  declining 
frame.  I  have  lately  had  an  opportunity  of 
witnessing  more  than  one  case,  in  which  copi- 
ous and  repeated  bleeding  relieved  an  asth- 
matic old  man  from  most  other  symptoms  of 
disease ;  but  at  the  same  time  left  a  degree  of 
weakness  from  which  he  was  not  able  to  re- 
cover, and  which  was,  in  no  long  time,  fatal 
in  its  result.  Bleeding  may,  in  some  in- 
stances, produce  a  temporary  alleviation  of 
pain,  only  by  inducing  that  debility  of  the  ge- 
neral powers  of  the  system,  which,  of  course, 
deducts  in  a  proportionate  degree  from  the 
particular  power  of  sensation. 


BLEEDING.  I7l 

The  fatal  result  of  real  or  apparent  apo- 
plexy, may  sometimes  arise  from  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  treated.  At  the  sight  of  a  per- 
son in  any  kind  of  fit,  the  surgeon  almost  in- 
stinctively pulls  out  his  lancet.  Sometimes, 
even  after  the  paroxysm  has  subsided,  bleed- 
ing is  had  recourse  to  from  a  vague  and  em- 
pirical notion  of  its  indiscriminate  utility  in 
this  class  of  diseases.  Less  slaughter,  I  am 
convinced,  has  been  effected  by  the  sword, 
than  by  the  lancet, — that  minute  instrument  of 
mighty  mischief! 

From  the  period  of  life  at  which  apoplectic 
and  paralytic  seizures  are  most  apt  to  take 
place  ;  from  the  enfeebling  habits  or  diseases 
which  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  have  pre- 
ceded and  prepared  the  way  for  their  occur- 
rence ;  and  from  the  variety  of  circumstances 
indicating  a  worn  and  debilitated  frame,  which 
almost  invariably  accompany  such  attacks,  it 
would  seem  natural  to  infer,  that  although  the 
habitual  use  of  stimuli  may,  in  many  in- 
stances, have  helped  to  bring  on  this  deplor- 
able state  of  the  constitution ;  a  recovery  from 
it,  when  it  is  practicable,  can  be  effected  only 
by  their  temporary  application ;  and  that,  on 
the  contrary,  to  have  recourse,  in  so  extreme  a 
case  of  actual  weakness,  attended  by  a  partial 
suspension  of  the  functions  of  life,  to  the  most 


172  BLEEDING. 

direct  and  powerful  means  of  producing  still 
further  weakness  and  exhaustion,  is,  in  effect, 
forcibly  to  overwhelm  the  sinking,  and  to 
trample  upon  the  already  prostrate. 

My  opinions  upon  this  subject  cannot  be 
better  sanctioned  than  by  the  authority  of  the 
late  venerable  Dr.  Heberden,  whose  own 
words  relative  to  a  point  so  important,  it  may 
not  be  improper  to  make  use  of:  "  Etenim  ju- 
"  niores  et  robusti  non  tarn  obnoxii  sunt  his 
"  morbis  (apoplexy  and  palsy)  quam  pueri  in-. 
"  firmi,  et  effseti  senes,  in  quibus  vires  nutri- 
"  endse  sunt  et  excitand?e,  potius  quam  minu- 
"  endse  ;  dum  multa  sanguinis  profusio,  quem- 
"  admodum  in  submersis  fieri  dicitur,  omnes 
"  naturae  conatus  reprimit,  et  tenues  vitse  re- 
"  liquias  penitus  extinguit.  Quod  si  consula- 
"  mus  experientiam,  hsec,  quantum  possum 
"judicare,  testatur,  copiosas  sanguinis  mis- 
"  siones  ssepe  nocuisse,  casque  in  non  paucis 
"  segrotis,  tutius  fuisse,  prsetermissas."* 


*  The  commentaries  of  Dr.  Hebevden,  from  which  the  above  quotation 
has  been  made,  comprise  the  scanty  but  invaluable  results  of  a  long  hfe  of 
extensive  and  diligent,  as  well  as  of  correct  and  sagacious  observation. 
That  experienced  and  higlily-accompli  shed  practitioner,  in  this  hishterary 
legacy  to  the  pubUc,  has  communicated  a  large  portion  of  what  is -at  pre- 
sent known  in  the  practical  part  of  medicine : — a  science,  which,  after  the 
lapse  of  so  many  ages,  may  stiU  be  regarded  as  at  a  great  distance  from 
its  maturity. 

"  When  will  thy  long  minority  expire  .'" 

Yog^ng. 


BLEEDING.  173 

In  the  preceding  observations,  it  is  far  from 
my  intention  to  inculcate  that  bleeding  is  not, 
in  many  instances  of  apoplexy  or  palsy,  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  the  life  of  the  patient ;  but, 
that  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  also  many  in- 
stances in  which  it  may  with  more  propriety 
be  omitted,  and  that  such  diseases  would  not 
be  so  generally  fatal,  if  the  lancet  were  more 
cautiously  and  less  indiscriminately  employed. 

It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  weak- 
ness is  not  always  an  insuperable  argument 
against  the  propriety  of  bleeding.  The  arte- 
ries, whose  contractile  power  has,  from  any 
cause,  been  considerably  impaired,  are  some- 
times not  able,  without  difficulty  and  febrile 
uneasiness,  to  propel  even  their  usual  quan- 
tity of  blood.  Under  such  circumstances,  they 
ought,  perhaps,  to  be  in  some  measure  reliev- 
ed from  their  burden  by  timely  and  moderate 
evacuation.  The  existence  of  a  morbid  ple- 
thora is  not  to  be  ascertained  merely  by  the  ab- 
solute mass  of  fluid,  or  even  by  its  proportion 
to  the  diameter  of  the  vessels  which  it  occu- 
pies ;  but  likewise  by  a  circumstance  which 
is  not,  perhaps,  sufficiently  attended  to ;  the 
less  or  greater  degree  of  power  which,  in  any 
particular  instance,  the  heart  and  arteries  may 
possess,  of  urging  with  unintermitting  con- 
stancy, the  tide  of  sanguineous  circulation. 
S3 


174  BLEEDING. 

By  most  practitioners  it  is  imagined,  that 
what  is  called  local  bleeding,  is  preferable,  in 
many  cases,  to  that  which  is  called  general. 
In  apoplexy,  for  instance,  the  pressure  upon 
'  the  brain  is  supposed  to  be  relieved  more  ef- 
fectually, as  well  as  more  expeditiously,  by  an 
operation  on  a  vessel  in  the  neck,  than  on  one 
in  either  of  the  arms  ;  in  pleurisy,  pthisis,  or 
catarrh,  by  cupping  and  leeches  in  the  breast  or 
side  affected,  than  any  where  else.  When 
more  attentively  considered,  however,  the 
matter  will  appear,  perhaps,  in  a  somewhat 
different  light.  There  is  no  such  thing,  in  fact, 
as  local  bleeding,  if  by  that  term  be  meant  an 
evacuation  from  one  part  of  the  vascular  sys- 
tem, without  its  affecting  in  the  same  propor- 
tion every  other.  When  a  fluid  is  in  a  con- 
stant state  of  circulation  through  a  round  of 
vessels,  it  can  be  of  little  consequence  from 
what  part  of  that  circle  any  quantity  of  it  is 
deducted.  If  we  drink  out  of  a  canal,  through 
which  flows  a  free  and  uninterrupted  stream, 
in  whatever  place  the  draught  be  taken,  it 
must  equally  affect  the  level  of  its  surface  and 
the  impetuosity  of  its  course. 


ESSAY  XXIII. 


PHARMACY. 


Pharmacy  may  be  abused ;  but  it  is  not 
therefore  to  be  despised.  Nature  has  provi- 
ded physic  to  relieve  the  ailments,  as  it  has 
food  for  the  nourishment  and  support,  of  man. 
The  suitable  and  seasonable  use  of  the  one  is 
almost  as  necessary  in  order  to  rectify  occa- 
sional deviations  from  health,  as  that  of  the 
other  is  for  its  ordinary  'maintenance  and  pre- 
servation.  There  are,  hov\^ever,  several  seem- 
ing  abuses  of  pharmacy,  to  which  I  shall  here 
venture  to  advert,  although,  I  hope,  with  due 
reverence  towards  established  usage. 

In  cases  of  convalescence  from  acute  dis- 
ease, to  prolong  a  medicinal  course,  for  the 
sake  merely  of  still  further  strengthening,  af- 
ter the  natural  desire  has  returned  for  whole- 
some and  substantial  food,  is  a  practice  that 
appears  to  me  contrary  to  common  sense,  al- 
though it  be  not  altogether  so  to  ordinary  rou- 
tine.    Under  such  circumstances,  '•  to  throw 


176  PHARxMACY. 

in  the  bark,"  is  to  those  who  are  asking  for 
bread,  giving  a  stone.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  permanently  strengthening  medicine.  It 
is  only  what  nourishes,  that  gives  any  durable 
vigour  or  support.  Drugs,  although  not  in 
general  intoxicating,  are  at  best  unnatural  sti- 
muli ;  and  of  course  are  seldom  to  be  resorted 
to,  except  in  that  state  of  the  constitution  in 
which  it  cannot  be  duly  excited  by  the  ordi- 
nary incentives  to  vital  and  healthy  action. 

If  an  exception  should  be  made  in  favour  of 
the  chronic  use  of  any  medicine,  it  ought,  per- 
haps, to  be  allowed  in  the  case  of  steel.  To  a 
lady  who  enquired  of  Sydenham,  how  long 
she  should  continue  to  take  this  remedy,  he 
replied,  ^'  thirty  years :  and  if  you  are  not  well 
then,  begin  it  again."  It  may  appear  some- 
what singular,  that  the  very  same  metal,  which 
is  so  often  employed  as  a  weapon  of  destruc- 
tion in  the  hand  of  the  warrior  or  the  assas- 
sin, should  in  that  of  an  intelligent  and  dis- 
cerning physician,  be  converted  into  one  of 
the  most  powerful  instruments  to  be  found  in 
the  magazine  of  nature,  for  restoring  health, 
and  giving  sometimes,  as  it  were  by  magic, 
new  life,  vigour,  and  even  beauty,  to  the  hu- 
man frame. 

In  the  prescriptions  of  physicians,  as  well 
as  in  the  peparations  of  cookery,  a  simplicity 


PHARMACY.  177 

ought  to  be  observed,  which  is,  in  general, 
perhaps,  not  sufficiently  attended  to.  A  num- 
ber of  different  dishes,  which,  separately  ta- 
ken, might  be  wholesome  and  nutritious,  must 
all  together  form  a  compound  that  cannot  fail 
to  have  an  unfavourable  and  disturbing  effect 
upon  the  organs  of  digestion.  In  like  manner, 
a  glass  of  port  wine  or  a  glass  of  Madeira,  a 
draught  of  ale  or  one  of  porter,  might,  in  a 
state  of  debility  or  fatigue,  for  a  time  at  least, 
invigorate  and  refresh ;  while,  if  we  take  a 
draught,  the  same  in  quantity,  but  composed 
of  all  these  different  liquors,  we  shall  find  that, 
instead  of  enlivening  and  refreshing,  it  will 
nauseate  and  oppress.     And  yet  something 
similar  to  this  daily  takes  place  in  the  formulae 
of  medical  practitioners.     A  variety  of  drugs 
are  often  combined  in  ihe  same  recipe,  each 
of  which  might  be  good,  but  the  whole  of 
which  cannot.    A  mixture  of  corroborants  or 
tonics,  is  not  necessarily  a  tonic  or  corrobo- 
rative mixture.  A  prescription  ought  seldom, 
perhaps,  to  contain  more  than  one  active  and 
efficient  ingredient.  We  should  thus  give  that 
ingredient  fair  play ;  and  by  a  competent  re- 
petition of  trials,  might  be  able  to  ascertain, 
with  tolerable  correctness,  its  kind  and  degree 
of  influence  upon  the  constitution :  whereas, 
out  of  a  confused  and  heterogeneous  mass,  it 


178  PHARMACY. 

is  impossible  for  us  to  discriminate  the  indi- 
vidual operation  of  any  one  of  the  articles 
which  compose  it. 

It  may  be  proper  here  to  observe,  that  al- 
though there  should  seldom  be  a  variety  in  the 
same  prescription,  it  is  expedient,  more  es- 
pecially in  chronic  cases,  that  the  prescriptions 
should  be  occasionally  varied,  in  order  to  se- 
cure, for  any  length  of  time,  the  production 
of  the  same  effect.  By  changing  the  kind, 
we  render  it  less  necessary  to  increase  the 
quantity  of  a  restorative  agent.  When,  as 
after  a  certain  period,  it  will  generally  happen, 
any  single  remedy  has  lost  in  some  degree  its 
salutary  action,  the  application  of  another,  al- 
though not  intrinsically  superior  in  power,  will 
often  be  necessary  to  preserve  a  continuity  of 
progress  towards  a  state  of  perfect  restora- 
tion. A  considerable  dexterity  in  frequently 
altering,  or  in  modifying  anew,  the  admin- 
istration of  remedies,  is  in  a  particular  man- 
ner called  for  during  the  protracted  contin- 
uance of  most  nervous  diseases. 

In  appreciating  the  value  of  a  pharmaceu- 
tical course,  we  ought  not  to  overlook  its  use 
in  affording  a  certain  degree  of  interest  and 
occupation  to  the  mind  of  a  valetudinarian.  In 
the  absence  of  every  diversion,  even  the  swal- 
lowing of  physic  may  be  a  source  of  amuse- 


PHARMACY.  179 

ment.  The  times  for  taking  the  different 
draughts  or  doses,  are  so  many  epochs  in  the 
chronology  of  an  hypochondriac,  which,  by 
dividing,  help  to  conquer  the  tedium  of  his 
day. 

Such  is  the  power  of  imagination,  that  the 
result  of  a  medicine  depends  much  upon  the 
respect  which  a  patient  feels  for  his  physician. 
Faith  will  give  a  virtue  to  the  most  inefficient 
remedy  :  on  the  other  hand,  a  distrust  in  the 
ability  of  a  professional  adviser,  will  often  de- 
feat the  tendency  of  his  most  judicious  and 
seasonable  prescription.  It  is  often  necessary 
that  the  mental  disposition  of  the  invalid  should 
co-operate  with  the  drugs,  in  order  to  give 
them  their  fullest  efficacy.  Practitioners,  who 
by  any  means  have  become  celebrated  or  pop- 
ular, are  often,  on  that  very  account,  more 
successful  than  others  in  their  treatment  of 
diseases.  A  similar  remark  may  be  made 
with  regard  to  medicines  themselves.  A  new 
medicine  will  often  obtain  a  fortuitous  fame, 
during  the  continuance  of  which,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  it  actually  produces  some  of  those 
salutary  effects  which  are  ascribed  to  it.  But 
the  fault  of  these  new  remedies  is,  that  they 
will  not  keep.  For  as  soon  as  the  caprice  of 
the  day  has  gone  by,  and  fashion  has  with- 
drawn its  protecting  influence,  the  once  cele- 


180  PHARMACY. 

brated  recipe  is  divested  of  its  beneficial  pro- 
perties, if  it  do  not  become  positively  delete- 
rious ',  by  which  it  vsrould  appear,  that  its  re- 
putation had  not  been  the  result  of  its  saluta- 
ry efficacy  -,  but  that  its  salutary  efficacy  had 
been,  in  a  great  measure  at  least,  the  result  of 
its  reputation.  However  sceptical  a  physician 
may  be  with  regard  to  the  inherent  or  per- 
manent qualities  of  a  specific  in  vogue,  it  is 
his  duty,  perhaps,  to  take  advantage  of  the  tide 
of  opinion,  as  long  as  it  flows  in  its  favour. 
He  may  honestly  make  use  of  his  patient's 
credulity,  in  order  to  relieve  him  from  the 
pressure  of  his  disease,  and  render  the  partial 
weakness  of  his  mind  instrumental  to  the  gen- 
eral restoration  of  his  corporeal  strength.  A 
wholesome  prejudice  should  be  respected.  It 
is  of  little  consequence  whether  a  man  be 
healed  through  the  medium  of  his  fancy  or  his 
stomach. 


ESSAY  XXVI. 


ABLtJTION. 


Personal  cleanliness  ought  to  be  added  to 
the  list  of  the  cardinal  virtues,  not  only  as  be- 
ing equally  conducive  with  any  of  them  to  the 
welfare  of  the  body,  but  as  it  is  connected 
with,  and  for  the  most  part  implies,  a  certain 
degree  of  delicacy  and  purity  of  mind.  For 
the  generality  of  cutaneous  diseases,  there  is 
not,  perhaps,  a  better  recipe  in  the  pharma- 
copeia than  is  to  be  found  in  one  of  the  peri- 
odical papers  of  the  "  World."  "  Take  of 
pure  clean  water  quantum  siifficit :  put  it  into  a 
clean  earthen  or  china  basin :  then  take  a  clean 
linen  cloth;  dip  it  in  that  water;  and  ap- 
ply it  to  the  part  affected,  night  and  morning, 
or  afternoon,  as  occasion  may  require." 

At  the  same  time,  that  I  would  wish  to  in- 
culcate the  importance  of  frequent  ablution,  I 
cannot  too  deeply  impress  my  opinion  of  the 
danger  tliat  may  arise  from  a  careless  and 
24 


18^  ABLUTION. 

indiscriminate  use  of  the  cold  bath ;  a  fashion- 
able remedy  which  is  much  more  frequently 
injurious  than  those  who  have  recourse  to  it 
seem  to  be  aware  of.  There  are  certain  ob- 
structions or  irregularities  which  the  shock  of 
the  cold  bath  may  be  calculated  to  rectify  or 
remove :  but  that  a  course  of  shocks  should 
be  in  general  likely  to  invigorate  a  feeble,  or 
give,  what  is  called,  tone  to  a  relaxed  consti- 
tution, is  too  glaringly  inconsistent  with  the 
suggestions  of  ordinary  sense,  to  harmonize 
with  the  genuine  principles  of  medical  philo- 
sophy. 

A  patient  is,  for  the  most  part,  to  be  raised 
to  a  state  of  strength,  from  the  depression  of 
chronic  debility,  only  by  those  influences 
which  act  gradually  and  almost  imperceptibly, 
like  that  of  the  air  which  he  is  constantly, 
though  unconsciously,  breathing,  or  that  pro- 
cess of  assimilation,  which  is  every  moment 
going  on  in  the  body,  without  his  being  aware 
of  it. 

Bathing  in  the  sea  is,  in  general,  more  be- 
neficial, and  less  liable  to  danger  or  inconve- 
nience, than  the  ordinary  cold  bath ;  princi- 
pally, if  not  entirely,  because  the  marine  tem- 
perature being  higher,  the  transition  from  one 
element  to  another  is  less  violent  in  the  for- 
mer case  than  in  the  latter.     As  to  the  saline 


ABLUTION.  183 

particles  of  this,  or  any  of  the  chemical  con- 
stituents, upon  which  is  supposed  to  depend, 
in  a  great  measure,  the  virtue  of  other  baths 
of  medicinal  celebrity,  they  can  scarcely  have 
any  important  effect  upon  the  body  during  the 
usual  period  of  its  immersion.  Regarding,  as 
it  seems  reasonable  to  do,  the  act  of  bathing 
as  in  the  generality  of  cases  beneficial  only  so 
far  as  it  performs  the  office  of  ablution,  it  will 
appear  that  the  utility  of  every  species  of  wa- 
ter is  nearly  equal,  in  reference  to  external  ap- 
plication. 

Ablution,  which,  in  the  Mosaic  law,  consti- 
tuted one  of  its  most  important  ceremonies, 
and,  in  the  Christian,  was  originally  inculcated 
as  an  essential  and  introductory  rite,  and 
which  has  been  always  enjoined  as  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  health,  has  of  late  been 
happily  extended  to  the  successful  manage- 
ment of  disease.*  It  has  been  well  ascer- 
tained that  fevers  may,  in  a  number  of  cases, 
be  washed  away  almost  without  any  pharma- 
ceutical assistance. 


*  In  noticing  the  application  of  washing  to  the  treatment  of  diseases,  we 
cannot  but  refer,  with  gratitude  and  respect,  to  the  scientific  and  benevo- 
lent exertions  of  the  late  Dr.  Cuvrie,  whose  splendid  and  solid  talents, 
were  employed  with  equal  success,  in  restoring  the  health  of  the  living, 
and  embalming  the  memory  of  the  dead.  No  selfish  insincerity  can  be  sus- 
pected in  an  expression  of  reverence  for  the  character  of  one  whose  ear 
it  will  never  reach.  The  voice  of  praise,  however  loud,  cannot  interrupt 
the  silence,  or  penetrate  tlie  secrecy  of  the  tomb. 


184  ABLUTION. 

Nervous  diseases  also,  have  been  more  ef- 
fectually perhaps,  than  by  any  other  remedy, 
relieved  by  the  cold  bath,  which,  while  it  tends 
duly  to  excite  the  too  sluggish  action  of  the 
vessels,  clears  away  likewise  that  invisible 
filth,  by  w^hich  their  cutaneous  mouths  are,  by 
a  criminal  negligence,  so  frequently  block- 
aded. 

To  the  mansions  of  the  wealthy,  a  bath 
ought  to  be  considered  as  an  indispensable  ap- 
pendage :  and  if  institutions  for  the  corporeal 
purification  of  the  lower  classes  of  society 
were  generally  established,  such  a  measure 
could  not  fail  to  produce  an  incalculable  dimi- 
nution of  disease ;  and  would  thus  supersede, 
to  a  certain  degree,  the  more  expensive  ne- 
cessity of  hospitals,  and  that  of  the  other  me- 
dicinal asylums  for  popular  refuge  and  relief. 


ESSAY  XXV. 


BODILY    EXERCISE. 


"Whatever  hope  the  dreams  of  specula- 
tion may  suggest,  of  observing  the  proportion 
between  nutriment  and  labour,  and  keeping 
the  body  in  a  healthy  state,  by  supplies  exact- 
ly suited  to  its  waste,  we  know  that,  in  effect, 
the  vital  powers,  unexcited  by  motion,  grow 
gradually  languid ;  that  as  their  vigour  fails, 
obstructions  are  generated;  and  from  ob- 
structions proceed  most  of  those  pains  which 
wear  us  away  slowly  by  periodical  tortures, 
and  which,  although  they  sometimes  suffer 
life  to  be  long,  condemn  it  to  be  useless; 
chain  us  down  to  the  couch  of  misery ;  and 
mock  us  with  the  hopes  of  death."* 

A  man,  it  should  be  considered,  may  sit  and 
lie,  as  well  as  eat  and  drink,  to  excess.  There 
is  a  debauchery  of  inaction,  as  well  as  of  re- 
pletion or  stimulation.  No  other  abstinence, 
however  salutary,  can  compensate  the  mis- 

•  Jolinsoi). 


186  BODILY  EXERCISE. 

chief  that  attends  upon  an  abstinence  from 
exercise. 

There  is  not  any  means  better  adapted  than 
bodily  exercise  for  the  cure,  as  well  as  pre- 
vention, more  particularly  of  what  are  called 
nervous  diseases.  A  man  suffering  under  a 
fit  of  the  vapours,  will  often  find  that  he  is 
able  to  walk  it  off".  He  can  be  exonerated 
from  the  load  upon  his  mind  by  the  violent  or 
continued  agitation  of  his  body.  I  have  heard 
of  an  eminently  successful  manager  of  the  in- 
sane, who  cured  his  patients  by  putting  them 
to  hard  labour.  By  making  them  literally 
work  like  horses,  he  brought  them  to  think 
and  feel  again  like  rational  beings. 

Of  the  important  effects  arising  from  bodily 
labour,  assisted,  perhaps,  by  mental  excite- 
ment, we  have  a  remarkable  instance  recorded 
in  the  "  Monita  et  Precepta,"  of  Dr.  Mead. 
"  A  young  student  at  college  became  so  deep- 
ly hypochondriac,  as  to  proclaim  himself  dead ; 
and  ordered  the  college  bells  to  be  tolled  on 
the  occasion  of  his  death.  In  this  he  was  in- 
dulged :  but  the  man  employed  to  execute  the 
task,  appeared  to  the  student  to  perform  it  so 
imperfectly,  that  he  arose  from  his  bed  in  a 
fury  of  passion,  to  toll  the  bell  for  his  own  de- 
parture. When  he  had  finished,  he  retired 
to  his  bed  in  a  state  of  profuse  perspiration. 


BODILY   EXERCISE,  187 

and  was  from  that  moment  alive  and  well." 
It  would  seem,  in  such  a  ease,  as  if  the  skin 
having  been  relaxed  by  exertion,  hypochon- 
driasis evaporated  through  its  pores. 

Improvements  in  the  mechanism  of  modern 
carriages,  by  which  they  are  made  to  convey 
a  person  from  place  to  place,  almost  v^dthout 
giving  him  a  sense  of  motion,  may  be  one  of 
the  circumstances  that  have  contributed  to  the 
encreased  prevalence  of  those  maladies  which 
originate  in  a  great  degree  from  a  fashionable 
indulgence  in  lassitude  and  languor.  ^ 

Walking  is,  no  doubt,  best  adapted  to  a  state 
of  unblemished  health  or  unimpaired  vigour. 
But,  for  the  feeble  and  hypochondriacal,  or 
those  who  are  affected  by  any  visceral  obstruc- 
tion or  disease,  riding  on  horseback  is  for  the 
most  part  preferable  to  any  other  kind  of  ex- 
cise. For  pthisis,  Sydenham  regarded  it  as 
an  absolute  specific.  I  have  myself  frequent- 
ly seen  instances  of  broken-up  spirits,  and  ap- 
parently ruined  constitutions,  in  which  an  al- 
together unexpected  restoration  to  strength 
and  cheerfulness,  has  been  effected  by  horse 
exercise,  when  almost  every  other  method  of 
recovery  had  been  tried  without  any  sensible 
advantage.  To  many  of  my  nervous,  as  well 
as  bilious  patients,  I  have  recommended  it,  as 


188  BODILY   EXERCISE, 

almost  my  sole  prescription,  to  live  oji  horse- 
back. 

No  persons,  perhaps,  more  strikingly  illus- 
trate the  importance  of  bodily  exercise,  than 
that  class  of  bon  vivants  who  combine  with  a 
luxurious  mode  of  living,  amusements,  which 
consist  in  strenuous  and  almost  indefatigable 
exertions.  The  sportsman  works  as  hard  for 
pastime,  as  the  ordinary  day  labourer  is  obli- 
ged to  do  for  bread.  The  toils  of  both  are 
equally  arduous  ;  and  differ  only  in  the  one 
being  a  matter  of  choice,  and  the  other  of  ne- 
cessity. The  unwholesome  pleasures  of  the 
table  are  in  a  manner  compensated  by  the 
salutary  enjoyments  of  the  chase.  An  evening 
of  noisy  and  jovial  intemperance,  not  unusu- 
ally crowns  a  day  of  equally  jovial  and  noisy 
activity  ;  and  a  man  wUl  often  be  found  for  a 
long  time  to  escape  the  dangers  of  the  field, 
and  the  still  more  imminent  dangers  of  the 
festival.  The  follower  of  the  hounds  is  on 
the  road  to  health, "although  he  may  not  be  in 
search  of  it :  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  exces- 
ses,  which  are  too  frequently  connected  with 
his  manner  of  life,  it  might  prove  singularly 
conducive  to  vigour  and  longevity.  As  it  is, 
however,  the  fox-hunter  seldom  dies  of  a 
broken  neck,  to  which  he  seems  continually 
liable,  but  very  generally  of  a  broken  consti- 


bodiLy  exercise.  189 

tiition,  to  which  his  habits,  more  iaevitably, 
although  less  obviously  expose  him.  He 
stands  out  longer,  indeed,  than  the  sedentary 
or  indolent  debauchee  ;  but  yields  at  length 
to  the  destructive  power  of  licentious  indul- 
gence, with  all  the  sufferings,  although  without 
any  of  the  glory  or  the  merits  of  a  martyr. 
Coxe,  I  think,  states,  in  his  History  of  the 
Bourbons  of  Spain,  tliat  hunting  first  became 
there  a  royal  amusement,  or  at  least,  was  more 
assiduously  cultivated  as  such,  in  consequence 
of  its  having  been  professionally  advised  as 
an  antidote  to  the  hypochondriasis,  to  which 
that  august  family  were  constitutionally  liable. 


2$ 


ESSAY  XXVL 

REAL    EVILS,    A    REMEDY    FOR    THOSE    OF    THE 
IMAGINATION. 

The  author  has  often  been  apphed  to  by  hy- 
pochondriacs, who  fancied  themselves  phthisi- 
cal. Hypochondriasis  and  phthisis  are  sel- 
dom united.  Danger  of  this  latter  disease  is, 
for  the  most  part,  in  the  inverse  ratio  of  ap- 
prehension. He  who  thinks  himself  con- 
sumptive, will  very  rarely  be  found  to  be  so. 
Prevalent  as  phthisis  unfortunately  is,  the  fan- 
cy is  much  more  frequently  disordered  than 
the  organs  of  respiration.  In  the  absence  of 
any  other  malady,  the  physician  is  often  cal- 
led upon  to  cure  an  alarm, 

I  was  once  consulted  by  a  hypochondriacal 
young  man,  who  conceived,  without  the  small- 
est foundation,  that  he  was  afflicted  with  a 
diseased  liver.  He  had  previously  applied  to 
several  of  his  friends,  who  smiled  at  his  com- 
plaint, as  tlie  fiction  merely  of  a  capricious 


192  REAL,  EYILS,  A  REMEDY  FOR 

imagination.  Seeing,  though  his  disease  was 
exclusively  mental,  that,  at  the  same  time,  it 
was  too  deeply  rooted  to  be  removed  by  ar- 
gument or  ridicule,  I  listened  to  the  statement 
of  his  feelings  with  the  most  respectful  atten- 
tion ;  apparently  coincided  with  him  in  his  no- 
tioi;i  of  the  malady ;  and  professed  to  treat  it 
as  if  it  were  in  fact  a  disorder  of  a  particular 
viscus.  The  patient  had  taken,  only  for  a  short 
time,  what  had  been  prescribed  ostensibly  for 
his  liver,  before  he  found  that  the  pain  in  his 
right  side,  and  other  symptoms  which  he  at- 
tributed to  a  deranged  condition  of  that  organ, 
were  considerably  alleviated :  and  in  little 
more  than  a  month,  every  trace  of  his  hepatic 
affection  was  completely  obliterated.  It  is 
long  since  he  has  been  restored  to  a  state  of 
healthy  activity  and  unobscured  chearfulness. 

A  diseased  fancy  will  not  unfrequently  pro- 
duce nearly  all  the  symptoms,  or  at  least  all 
the  sensations  of  bodily  disease.  But  any  very 
serious  malady  of  the  latter  kind  is  calculated, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  dissipate  the  clouds 
which  hover  over  the  imagination.  Hypo- 
chondriasis may  often  thank  calamity  for  its 
cure. 

Some  years  ago,  I  knew  a  lady  who  had  for 
a  long  time  been  a  miserable  victim  to  the 
vapours,  but  who  was  completely  cured  of 


THOSE   OF  THE  IMAGINATION.  193 

this  complaint  by  the  supervening  of  another, 
which  was  more  immediately  alarming,  and 
which  precluded  indeed  the  possibility  of  much 
longer  life.  No  sooner  was  her  new  disease 
ascertained  to  be  an  aneurism  of  the  aorta, 
and  the  necessary  result  of  that  complaint  was 
explained  to  her,  than  all  her  nervous  feelings 
vanished :  and  she  even  bore  the  announce- 
ment of  her  inevitable  fate  with  a  calmness 
which  is  seldom  exhibited  under  such  trying 
circumstances.  The  near  prospect  of  death, 
instead  of  overpowering,  seemed  to  brace 
anew  the  relaxed  energies  of  her  frame  ;  and 
what  is  well  worthy  of  remark,  so  far  from 
being,  during  her  subsequent  days,  selfishly 
absorbed  by  her  real,  as  she  had  been  before 
by  her  imaginary  ailments,  she  interested  her- 
self almost  continually  and  exclusively  about 
the  happiness  of  others ;  and,  in  proportion 
as  she  became  more  amiable,  found  herself 
less  wretched. 

In  the  crucible  of  serious  sorrow,  the  affec- 
tions are,  in  general,  purified  and  refined. 
But  trials  of  a  lighter  sort  have  often  an  un- 
desirable rather  than  a  happy  influence  upon 
the  character.  A  high  degree  of  heat  melts^ 
a  lower  merely  soils  and  tarnishes  the  metal 
which  is  exposed  to  its  influence.  Truly  tra- 
gical misfortune  begets  a  kind  of  heroic  com- 


194*  REAL  EVILS,    A  REMEDY  FOR 

posure.  Distress,  when  it  is  profound,  be- 
comes the  parent  of  equanimity.  It  renders 
our  feelings  proof  against  the  petty  hostilities 
of  fortune.  What  were  before  cares,  are,  un- 
der such  circumstances,  often  converted  into 
comforts.  Even  pain  of  body  operates  as 
mental  relief.  Adversity,  when  it  assumes  its 
more  awful  form,  lifts  us  above  the  level  of 
the  earth,  so  that  we  are  no  longer  incommo- 
ded by  the  roughnesses  or  inequalities  of  its 
surface.  From  this  state  of  elevated  sorrow, 
a  man  looks  down  upon  the  common-place 
troubles  of  life  with  the  same  sort  of  contempt 
or  indifference  as  upon  the  toys  and  trifles  of 
his  childhood.  The  mind  itself  is  enlarged  by 
the  magnitude  of  its  misery. 

Such  may  be  conceived,  for  instance,  to  be 
the  mental  situation  of  a  man  of  even  ordi- 
nary feeling,  under  the  recent  and  irretrieva- 
ble loss  of  one  whose  soul  had  been  in  a  man- 
ner amalgamated  with  his  own;  between 
whom  and  himself,  there  had  long  been  not  a 
sympathy  merely,  but  a  unity  almost  of  con- 
sciousness. To  the  ordinary  weight  of  the  at- 
mosphere we  become,  on  account  of  its  un- 
ceasing pressure,  altogether  insensible.  But 
the  sudden  removal  of  this  imperceptible 
weight  would  occasion  agonizing  convulsions. 
In  like  manner,  where  the  unwearied  assidui- 


# 


THOSE  OF  THE  IMAGINATION.  195 

ties  of  domestic  tenderness,  of  which  from 
long  famiUarity  with  them  we  are  apt  to  grow 
almost  unconscious,  are,  by  the  most  solemn 
of  human  events,  for  ever  withdrawn,  our  eyes 
are  often,  for  the  first  time,  opened  to  our  late 
happiness  by  the  conviction  of  its  irrevocable 
departure. 


ESSAY  XXVIL 


OCCUPATION. 


Business,  attended  with  extreme  care  and 
uneasiness,  is,  perhaps,  less  undesirable  than 
the  having  no  subject  at  all  of  uneasiness  or 
care.  The  worst  kind  of  air  is  not  more  cer- 
tainly fatal  than  a  vacuum.  Inaction  is  not 
rest:  recumbency  is  not  repose.  Although 
we  squander  our  exertions  upon  an  insignifi- 
cant or  undeserving  object,  the  pains  we  take 
to  attain  it  are  attended  with  advantage  as  well 
as  pleasure.  The  means  are  necessarily  use- 
ful, however  worthless  may  be  the  end.  That 
the  passion  for  gaming  should  prevail,  as  it 
so  frequently  does,  in  minds  of  a  superior  or- 
der, is  to  be  attributed  to  a  principle  different 
from  avarice.  Men  of  that  character  love  the 
dice,  in  general,  not  so  much  from  the  pros- 
pect of  the  wealth  which  they  may  chance  to 
36 


198  OCCUPATION, 

from  the  table,  as  from  that  very  agitation  of 
mind,  and  that  strain  of  attention,  which  seems 
so  unenviable  to  a  tranquil  and  disengaged 
spectator.  Gambling  is  a  miserable  refuge 
from  the  still  greater  miseries  of  indolence 
and  vacuity.  So  dependent  is  the  mind  of 
man  upon  novelty  and  expectation,  or,  in  an- 
other word,  upon  engagement,  that  he  adds 
artificial  chances  to  those  which  are  insepar- 
ably attached  to  his  nature  and  condition.  As 
if  the  inevitable  vicissitudes  of  human  life  did 
not  sufficiently  endanger  his  peace,  he  ex- 
poses himself,  unnecessarily  and  wantonly,  to 
be  trodden  under  the  foot  of  fortune,  or  to  be 
crushed  by  the  revolution  of  her  wheel. 

Expectation  is  the  vital  principle  of  happi- 
ness. It  is  that  which  constantly  stimulates 
us  to  exertion,  and  fills  up  the  vacant  spaces 
of  life.  We  are  in  general  more  interested  by 
a  precarious  good  in  prospect,  than  by  the 
most  valuable  realities  in  our  possession.  The 
blossoms  of  hope  are  better  than  the  ripened 
fruits  of  fortune.  We  complain  of  the  vicis- 
situdes and  uncertainty  attending  upon  our 
present  state :  and  yet  it  is,  in  this  very  uncer- 
tainty and  vicissitude,  that  its  interest,  and  of 
course  its  value,  principally  consists.  Anti- 
cipated change  constitutes  the  predominant 


OCCUPATION.  199 

charm  of  life.  What  we  imagine  that  we  may 
be,  reconciles  us  to  an  endm^ance  of  what  wc 
are.     Were  a  map  to  be  presented  to  us,  in 
which  we  could  discern  the  windings  of  our 
future  way  as  distinctly  as  we  can  look  back 
upon  our  past  past  route,  our  desire  to  pro- 
ceed  in  the  journey  of  life  would  be  no  great- 
er, than  it  is  to  retrace  the  steps  which  we 
have  already  trodden.     If  we  could  lift  the 
curtain  which  divides  the  future  from  the  pre- 
sent, we  should  find  that  it  was  like  one  of 
those    beautifully    coloured    transparencies, 
which  are  contrived  so  as  to  intercept  the 
view  of  uninteresting  or  disagreeable  objects. 
There  is  an  important  practical  difference, 
which  is  not,  perhaps,  sufficiently  attended  to, 
betwixt  effort  and  mere  occupation  of  mind 
— between    agitation    and    action — between 
strong    motions    and    strenuous    exertions. 
To  the  former  the  hypochondriacal  are  of- 
ten peculiarly  liable :  but  they  seem  in  ge- 
neral to  be  disinchned  to,  and  in  some  in- 
stances to  be  almost  incapable  of  the  latter. 
There  is  often  a  pressure  upon  the  spirits, 
which  takes  away,  or  essentially  impairs,  the 
power  of  voluntary  movement.     Many  a  me- 
lanchoUc  invalid  is  conscious  of  what  the  poet 
Cowper  remarks  relative  to  himself.     "  I  have 
that  within  me,  which  hinders  me  wretchedly 


^00  OCCUPATION, 

in  every  thing  that  I  ought  to  do ;  but  is  prone 
to  trifle,  and  let  every  good  thing  run  to  waste." 
The  possession  of  that  pecuniary  abun- 
dance which  supplies  a  man  with  the  conve- 
niences and  accommodations  of  life,  is  often 
an  unfavourable  circumstance  in  his  lot.  A 
specious  and  external  welfare  is  not  unfre- 
quently  the  indirect  cause  of  that  inward  con- 
dition, which  is  in  fact,  the  more  to  be  deplor- 
ed, as  it  presents  no  ostensible  claim  upon  our 
sympathy  and  compassion.  No  one  feels  so 
strongly  as  the  affluent  and  listless  hypochon- 
driac, the  vast  difference  between  prosperity 
and  happiness,  betwixt  possession  and  enjoy- 
ment. Opulence  is  the  natural  source  of  in- 
dolence, and  indolence  of  disease.  Neces- 
sity, inasmuch  as  it  impels  to  labour,  is  the  mo- 
ther of  hilarity,  as  it  proverbially  is  of  inven- 
tion. Toil  was  made  for  man :  and  although 
he  may  often  inherit  what  is  necessary  to  his 
existence,  he  is,  in  every  instance  obliged  to 
earn  what  is  essential  to  its  enjoyment.  If  we 
wish  for  habitual  cheerfulness,  we  must  work 
for  it;  there  is  no  "royal  road"  to  good  spi- 
rits. For  the  most  part,  we  find  that  none 
are  more  uneasy  in  themselves,  than  those 
who  are  placed  in  what  are  called  easy  cir- 
cumstances.    Few  persons  have  resolution 


OCCUPATION.  SOI 

enough  to  supply  the  place  of  necessity.  The 
lounger's  life  is  in  fact  a  life  of  the  most  irk- 
some  labour.  Upon  him  who  has  no  other 
burden  to  carry,  every  ho^r  presses  as  a  load. 
Instead  of  flying  by  him  with  an  evanescent 
celerity,  time  tediously  novers  over  his  head. 
The  sun,  as  in  the  daj^s  of  Joshua,  seems  to 
stand  still.  ' 

I  was  once  consulted  by  a  hypochondrial 
patient  who  had  been  the  greatest  part  of  his 
life  a  journeyman  taylor  ,*  but  who,  by  an  un- 
expected accident,  became  unhappily  rich, 
and  consequently  no  longer  dependent  for  his 
bread  upon  drudgery  and  confinement.  He 
accordingly  descended  from  his  board.  But 
Charles  the  Fifth,  after  having  voluntarily  de- 
scended from  his  throne,  could  not  have  re- 
gretted more  severely  the  injudicious  renun- 
ciation of  his  empire.  This  man,  after  having 
thrown  himself  out  of  employment,  fell  ill  of 
the  tedium  of  indolence.  He  discovered, 
that  the  having  nothing  to  do,  was  more  un- 
congenial to  his  constitution,  even  than  the 
constrained  attitude,  and  the  close  and  heated 
atmosphere  in  which  he  had  been  accustomed 
to  carry  on  his  daily  operations.  In  one  re- 
spect, however,  the  repentant  mechanic  was 
less  unfortunate  than  the  imperial  penitent.  It 


%02  OCCUPATION.  ^ 

remained  in  the  power  of  the  former  to  rein- 
state himself  in  his  previous  situation,  which, 
after  having  resumed  it,  no  motive  could,  a 
second  time,  induce  him  to  relinquish. 

It  is  more  difficult  than  is  generally  ima- 
gined, "to  realise  an  independence,"  For 
this  purpose,  a  mind  richly  endowed  is  at  least 
as  necessary  as  a  well-replenished  purse.  To 
set  a  man  up  in  a  business,  requires,  for  the 
most  part,  a  certain  capital.  To  set  him  up 
comfortably  in  a  state  of  idleness,  besides  a 
pecuniary  competency,  requires  also  a  capital 
of  a  different  sort.  To  render  retirement 
tolerable,  we  must  carry  into  it  a  stock  of 
ideas,  in  addition  to  our  other  funds.  We 
cannot  fQl  up  the  vacancy  of  leisure,  except 
from  the  fulness  of  our  internal  resources. 

The  drudge  of  mercantile  or  mechanical 
employment  patiently  waits  for  the  period, 
when  he  expects  to  be  repaid  for  the  hard^ 
ships  of  his  present  servitude,  by  a  final  libcr 
ration  from  his  fetters.  But  when  the  wished- 
for  period  arrives,  he  generally  finds,  in  the 
emancipation  which  it  brings,  a  punishment 
for  the  desertion  of  his  active  duty,  rather  than 
a  recompence  for  having  so  long  discharged 
it.  What  at  a  distance  appeared  the  most 
enviable  privilege,  proves,  upon  trial,  to  be 


OCCUPATION.  203 

almost  the  severest  penalty  that  could  have 
been  inflicted  upon  his  unlicensed  expecta- 
tions. 

A  man,  the  best  part  of  whose  hfe  has  been 
spent  in  endeavours  after  v^ealth,  however 
successful  he  may  be  in  the  attainment  of  his 
object,  will  scarcely  ever  become  independent 
of  the  pursuit.  The  slave  of  mercenary  toil  is 
transformed  into  the  more  miserable  victim 
of  mental  malady.  Hypochondriasis  fixes  its 
unsparing  tooth  upon  the  leavings  of  avarice. 
The  former,  indeed,  often  assumes  the  shape 
of  the  latter,  more  especially  when  it  attacks 
the  veteran  votaries  of  Mammon.  The  retired 
tradesman  continuing  to  part  with  his  money, 
although  he  has  ceased  to  acquire  it,  finds  that 
the  balance  of  his  books  is  not  so  much  in  his 
favour  as  formerly.  He  begins  to  fancy  that 
the  fountain  must  soon  be  exhausted,  from 
which  flows  a  perpetual  stream  of  expendi- 
ture. He  is  haunted  by  the  spectre  of  poverty. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  he  may  thus  starve 
himself  from  a  horror  of  famine,  or  be  driven 
to  live  in  a  mad-house  by  the  fear  of  dying  in 
a  jail. 

So  necessary  is  employment,  that  no  inno- 
cent form  which  it  can  assume,  ought  to  be 
rejected  or  despised.  Some  men  are  too  proud 


30^  OCCUPATION. 

to  be  pleased  with  what  interests  or  amuses 
the  generality  of  mankind.  Their  dignity 
would  be  impaired  in  their  own  eyes  by  a  par- 
ticipation in  ordinary  pastimes.  But  when  the 
mind  is  left  vacant  of  graver  concerns,  it  is  of 
the  highest  moment,  that  it  should  be  capable 
of  engaging  itself  in  trifles.  Philosophically 
considered,  almost  all  the  subjects  of  human 
occupation  are  trifling,  when  compared  with 
the  incalculable  importance  of  occupation  it- 
self. An  intellect  of  the  most  perfect  organ- 
ization possesses  that  compass  of  contracti- 
lity, which  enables  it  to  take  up  the  most 
minute,  as  well  as  to  grasp  the  largest  object 
within  its  reach,  and  for  the  time  to  be  equal- 
ly filled  with  either. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton,  with  no  less  justice,  per- 
haps, than  modesty,  ascribed  the  superiority 
which  he  appeared  to  possess  over  other  stu- 
dents of  philosophy,  merely  to  his  greater 
patience  or  more  continued  controul  over  his 
attention :  such  a  controul  over  the  attention 
is  not  more  essential  to  the  acquirements,  than 
it  is  to  the  healthy  condition  of  the  mind.  The 
healthy  condition  of  the  mind  may,  indeed, 
for  the  most  part,  be  considered  as  bearing 
an  exact  proportion  to  the  degree  in  which 
this  desirable  faculty  is  possessed. 


OCCUPATION.  205 

The  advantage  of  indispensible  occupation, 
is  never  more  unequivocally  evinced  than  in 
cases  of  heavy  calamity.  The  apparent  aggra- 
vation of  an  evil,  will  not  unfrequently  be 
found  to  constitute,  in  fact,  the  source  of  its 
most  effectual  relief.  The  situation  of  a  wi- 
dowed female,  left  in  needy  circumstances 
with  a  large  family,  is  often  less  truly  deplo- 
rable than  that  of  an  opulent  and  childless 
dowager,  who,  in  the  absence  of  other  objects 
of  interest  and  attention,  has  leisure  and  every 
accommodation  for  pampering  her  sorrow, 
and  of  nursing  dejection  until  it  ripens  into 
derangement.  Children,  in  the  former  case, 
are,  indeed,  heavy  weights  hanging  upon  the 
mind  of  th,e  mother;  but,  like  the  weights 
pulling  upon*the  machinery  of  a  clock,  they 
are  necessary  to  keep  it  in  motion.  Such  in- 
cumbrances, as  they  are  often  called,  may  be 
compared  to  a  drag  upon  the  wheel  of  a  car- 
riage, which  prevents  it  from  being  precipi- 
tated to  its  destruction. 

Salutary  as  occupation  in  general  is,  it  is 
far  from  being  so  when  it  consists  almost  ex- 
clusively in  an  attention  to  a  man's  self,  and 
more  particularly  to  his  corporeal  sensations 
and  iniirmities.  The  hypochondriac  often  de- 
stroys his  health,  by  taking  too  much  care  of 
27 


a06  OCCUPATION. 

« 

it.    The  maker  of  a  watch  will  tell  you,  that 
there  is  no  way  more  certain  of  injuring  it, 
than  the  constantly  meddling  with  its  machi- 
nery.  In  like  manner,  it  is  impossible  to  be 
perpetually  tampering  with  the  constitution, 
without  either  disordering  its  movements  or 
impairing  the  elasticity  of  its  spring.    A  vale- 
tudinarian is  apt  to  treat  himself,  as  a  doating 
mother  manages  her  child,  whom  she  ruins 
by  over-nursing  ;  whom  she  fondlfo  and  dan- 
dles into  delicacy  and  disease.     So  solicitoUs  • 
is  she  to  protect  him  against  the  inroads  of 
distemper,  that  she  closes  against  him  nearly 
every  avenue  of  health  as  well  as  enjoyment. 
He  is  scarcely  allowed  to  take  the  air,  lest  he 
thould  take  a  cold  along  with  it ;  ^hd  is  often 
restricted  in  the  free  use  of  ^  limbs,  from 
the  apprehension  of  accidental  fracture  or 
possible  fatigue. 

Lord  Chesterfield  somewhere  observes,  that 
a  gentleman,  after  having  once  dressed  him- 
self with  proper  care,  will  think  no  more  about 
his  dress  during  the  remainder  of  the  day.  In 
like  manner,  after  having  adjusted  his  habits 
of  regimen,  according  to  the  most  approved 
model,  a  wise  man  will  banish  the  subject 
from  his  mind.  He  will,  as  uniformly  as 
he  can,  adhere  to  the  rules  of  living  which 


OCCUPATION.  a07 

he  has  laid  down  for  himself ;  but  will  have 
them  as  Uttle  as  possible  in  his  thoughts. 
There  are  petit-maitres  with  regard  to 
health  as  well  as  dress.  Both  are  almost  con- 
stantly employed  in  examining  themselves;  the 
one  from  an  anxiety  to  know  whether  every 
thing  about  him,  the  other,  whether  every 
thing  within  him,  is  exactly  as  it  should  be. 
Each  of  these  characters  is,  to  a  certain  de- 
gree, an  object  of  pity.  But  the  coxcomb  has, 
in  one  respect,  the  advantage  over  the  hypo- 
chondriac ;  inasmuch,  as  the  latter  is,  in  ge- 
neral, less  satisfied  with  the  state  of  his  inside, 
than  the  former  is  with  the  appearance  of  his 
exterior. 

To  be  always  considering  "  what  we  should 
eat,  and  what  we  should  drink,  and  where- 
withal we  should  be  clothed,"  in  order  to 
avoid  the  approach  of  disease,  is  the  most 
likely  means  of  provoking  its  attack.  A  man 
who  is  continually  feeling  his  pulse,  is  never 
likely  to  have  a  good  one.  If  he  swallow  his 
food  from  the  same  motive  as  he  does  his  phy- 
sic, it  will  neither  be  enjoyed  nor  digested  so 
well  as  if  he  eat  in  obedience  to  the  dictate  of 
an  unsophisticated  and  uncalculating  appetite. 
The  hypochondriac  who  is  in  the  habit  of 
weighing  his  meals,  will  generally  find  that 


SOS  OCCUPATION. 

they  lie  heavy  on  his  stomach.  If  he  take  a 
walk  or  a  ride,  with  no  other  view  than  to 
pick  up  health,  he  will  seldom  meet  with  it 
on  the  road.  If  he  enter  into  company,  not 
from  any  social  sympathy  or  relish  for  inter- 
change of  thought,  but  merely  because  com- 
pany is  prescribed  for  his  disease,  he  will  only 
be  more  deeply  depressed  by  that  cheerful- 
ness in  which  he  cannot  compel  himself  to  par- 
ticipate ;  and  will  gladly  relapse  into  his  dar- 
ling solitude,  where  he  may  indulge  his  me- 
lancholy without  risk  of  interruption  or  dis- 
turbance. "The  countenance  of  a  friend 
doeth  good  like  a  medicine,"  but  not  if  we 
look  upon  it  merely  with  a  view  to  its  medi- 
cinal operation. 

The  constitutional  or  inveterate  hypochon- 
driac is  apt  to  view  every  thing  only  in  the 
relation  which  it  may  bear  to  his  malady.  In 
the  rich  and  diversified  store-house  of  nature 
he  sees  merely  a  vast  laboratory  of  poisons 
and  antidotes.  He  is  almost  daily  employed 
either  in  the  search  after,  or  in  the  trial  of,  re- 
medies for  a  disease  which  is  often  to  be  cu- 
red only  by  striving  to  forget  it. 

But  even  if  such  a  plan  of  fife  were  really 
calculated  to  lengthen  the  catalogue  of  our 
days,  it  would  still  be  equally  wretched  and 


OCCUPATION.  309 

degrading  t©  the  dignity  of  our  nature.  No- 
thing, surely,  can  be  more  idle  and  absurd  than 
to  waste  the  whole  of  our  being  in  endeavours 
to  preserve  it ;  to  neglect  the  purposes,  in  or- 
der to  protract  the  period,  of  our  existence. 


Propter  vitam,  vivendi  perdere  causas. 

Juvenal. 


FINIS. 


NEW  WORKS  AND  NEW  EDITIONS, 

PUBLISHED  AND  FOR  SALE  BY 

M,  CMEY  ^  SOJV, 

JVo.  126,  Chesnut' street,  S,  E.  corner  of  Fourth  : 
A  JOURNEY  THROUGH  ALBANIA,  and  other 
Provinces  of  Turkey  in  Europe  and  Asia,  to  Constanti- 
nople; in  the  years  1809  and  1810.  By  J.  C.  Hob- 
HousE.  In  2  vols.  8vo.  with  a  volume  of  plates,  price 
8  dollars,  in  boards. 

*^,*  Mr  Hobhouse  accompanied  Lord  Byron  in  his  travels  through 
Greece,  which  have  furnislied  him  with  subjects  for  his  very  popular 
poems.  For  an  account  of  their  travels  see  Chllde  Harold,  notes  to 
Canto  n.  The  public  expectation  was  so  highly  excited,  that  on  the 
day  of  publication,  there  was  not  a  copy  left  for  sale  in  London  ;  the 
publisher  having  previously  received  orders  for  the  whole  edition. 

"  These  volumes  are  the  work  of  a  person  veiy  active  and  obser- 
vant, very  intelhgent,  and  lai-gely  furnished  with  the  pre-requisites  for 
travelling  in  the  classical  regions, 

"  The  large  view  of  the  scite  and  vicinity  of  Athens  is  very  beauti- 
ful, and  really,  with  the  author's  assurance  of  its  accurate  truth,  quite 
valuable."  Eclectic   Retdew. 

"  Both  the  general  reader  and  the  scholar  may  look  for  no  small 
portion  of  amusement  from  these  volumes. 

'He  is  eminently  successful  in  the  description  of  natural  scenery." 

"More  diligence  has  seldom  been  shown  in  procimng  correct  in- 
formation with  regard  to  the  subjects  of  Romaic  litei-ature  and  ancient 
remains,  or  more  spirit  in  conveying  a  livety  idea  of  the  modern  man- 
ners of  Greece. 

"  The  work  will  fully  merit  a  stand  and  place  in  all  collections  of 
voyages  and  travels,  by  the  industry  and  order  of  research  conspicu- 
ous throughout,  as  well  as  by  the  spirit,  vivacity,  and  good  sense  of 
the  general  narrative."  Quarterly  lievieiu. 

"  The  description  which  Mr.  Hobhouse  has  given  of  Athens,  is  very 
ftill  and  complete  ;  and  indeed  contains  as  much  infoi'mation  respect- 
ing the  present  state  of  the  ruins  in  that  venerable  city,  as  can  be  re- 
quisite to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  the  scholar  or  the  antiquary.  The 
view  of  Athens  from  the  foot  of  Mount  Anchesmus,  which  forms  the 
first  print  in  the  first  volume  of  this  w"ork,  will  be  beheld  witii  lively 
interest  by  those  who  have  imbibed  an  admiration  of  the  Atlienians 
fi'om  the  works  of  tlie  Greek  authors,  and  have  been  early  wont  to 
revere  their  city  as  the  sacred  locality  where  the  .choicest  works  of 
genius  and  of  the  arts  have  been  produced.  Our  travelleris  sufiicient- 
ly  copious  and  distinct  in  his  account  of  other  parts  of  Greece  ;  and 
wherever  his  own  information  was  scanty  or  imperfect,  he  appears  to 
have  employed  much  industry  and  research  in  supplying  the  defects 
from  the  literary  treasures  of  ancient  and  modern  times.  We  were 
particularly  pleased  with  our  author's  details  respecting  the  situation 
where  the  memorable  battle  of  Platsea  was  fought."  Crit.  Rev. 

"  Our  limits  will  not  permit  us  to  follow  our  travellers  through  Al- 
bania :  we  shall  only  bear  our  testimony  to  the  entertaining  account 
which  Mr.  Hobhouse  has  given  us  of  the  scenery,  the  manners,  the 
customs,  and  the  government  of  the  covmtry,  and  to  the  very  inter- 
esting relation  of  his  interview  with  Ali  Pacha. 

"  Mr.  Hobhouse  does  not  often  indulge  in  the;  expression  of  his 
classical  feeling ;  the  few  passages,  therefore,  in  which  he  suffers 
himself  to  rise  into  eloquence,  meet  with  greater  force  the  heart  of 
the  reader 


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